Trees 4-12 m tall. Branchlets glabrous; terminal bud glabrous or sparsely pilose. Petiole 4-10 cm, glabrous; leaf blade nearly orbicular, (5.5-)10-14(-17) × (5-)7-8(-13) cm, papery, abaxially glabrous or fascicled hairy in vein axils only, adaxially glabrous, basal veins 5, lateral veins 6-8 pairs, minor veinlets prominently raised abaxially, base oblique, cordate, truncate, or rounded, margin serrate, apex acuminate or shortly caudate. Cymes 3-16-flowered, usually longer than or equaling bracts; peduncle adnate to bract for 2/5-1/2 length. Bracts broadly oblanceolate or narrowly oblong, 8-16 × 1.5-2.5 cm, abaxially nearly glabrous or sparsely pilose, adaxially glabrous; stalk to 0.5 cm. Sepals abaxially subglabrous or sparsely pilose, adaxially villous at base, margin densely hairy. Petals oblanceolate, glabrous, shortly stalked. Stamens 30-45; staminodes spatulate, long stalked. Ovary tomentose or nearly glabrous in bud; style glabrous; stigma prominently swollen, 2-lobed. Fruit nearly globose, sometimes prominently 5-angled, ca. 10 mm in diam., yellowish tomentose; exocarp woody, hard, indehiscent. Fl. Jun-Jul, fr. Aug-Oct. 2n = ca. 328*.

● Forests; 1800-2500 m. ?Henan, Sichuan, Yunnan.