Trees to 25 m. Bark pale gray, fissured; branchlets and buds yellow stellate tomentose or glabrous. Petiole 3-5 cm, yellow tomentose; leaf blade orbicular, 6-10 × 6-10 cm, abaxially densely yellow stellate tomentose or hairy only in vein axils, adaxially glabrous, lateral veins 5-6 pairs, extending into 3-5 mm awns, base cordate, sometimes oblique, margin serrate, apex broadly rounded, shortly caudate. Cymes 30-100-flowered, 10-12 cm; peduncle stellate puberulent. Bracts narrowly oblanceolate, 7-10 × 1-1.3 cm, adnate to peduncle for 3-5 cm, abaxially yellow stellate puberulent, adaxially sometimes glabrous, base narrow, apex obtuse; stalk 0.7-2 cm. Pedicel 7-9 mm, hairy. Sepals narrowly ovate, 4-5 mm, abaxially hairy. Petals 6-7 mm. Stamens as long as sepals; staminodes shorter than petals. Ovary hairy; style ca. 4 mm. Fruit obovoid, 5-angled, 7-9 mm, stellate hairy; exocarp woody, hard, indehiscent. Fl. Jun. 2n = 164*.

● Anhui, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Shaanxi, Zhejiang.