Shrubs or small trees, 3--8 m tall, evergreen. Bark gray to dark gray. Branches glabrous; young branchlets yellowish brown tomentose. Winter buds elliptic, densely and somewhat appressed yellowish brown pubescent. Petiole ca. 5 mm; leaf blade elliptic, 5--10 X 1.7--4 cm, thickly papery, both surfaces densely appressed yellowish brown pubescent when young, adaxially glabrescent and drying slightly grayish, lateral veins 4--6 per side. Male flowers in short 3--5-flowered cymes; calyx lobes 4; corolla campanulate, lobes 4; stamens 14--16. Female flowers solitary; corolla subcampanulate, lobes 4; staminodes ca. 10; ovary appressed yellowish brown pubescent; style base connate. Berries subglobose, ca. 1.8 cm in diam., with densely appressed hairs, glabrescent. Seeds 4. Fl. Apr, fr. Nov.

* Open forests, limestone hills or by streams. Guangxi (Guilin Shi, Lingchuan Xian), Hunan (Yichang Xian).