Trees 5--15 m tall. Branchlets slender, finely lenticellate, appressed rusty pilose when young, glabrescent. Winter buds small, pubescent, apex obtuse. Petiole (2--)4--6 mm, appressed pubescent; leaf blade narrowly elliptic to lanceolate, (2.4--)3.5--4.5(--6) X 1--3 cm, papery, both surfaces very minutely rugulose-papillate and glabrous or sparsely appressed pubescent when young, abaxially hairy along midrib at maturity, drying blackish, base rounded to broadly cuneate, apex acute to slightly acuminate, lateral veins 4--6 per side, reticulate veinlets almost invisible. Male flowers in 1--3-flowered cymes; pedicel slender, 1--2 mm; calyx 2--3.5 mm, lobes 4 and ovate; corolla urn-shaped, 4--5 mm, glabrous except for 4 lines of appressed hairs; corolla lobes 4, basally overlapping, ovate, ca. 1 mm, apex acute; stamens 16. Female flowers solitary; pedicel to 2 mm, pubescent; calyx lobes 4, lanceolate, 6--7 X ca. 2 mm, longer than corolla, subglabrous; corolla urn-shaped to subcampanulate, ca. 5 mm, with 4 white pilose ridges; corolla lobes 4, ovate, apex blunt; staminodes 5; ovary glabrous except at apex; styles 4, joined ± halfway; stigmas each slightly 2-lobed. Fruit solitary. Fruiting pedicel 2--4 mm. Fruiting calyx divided to near base, glabrescent; lobes 4, strongly recurved, lanceolate, ca. 6 X 3 mm, apex acute, veins inconspicuous. Berries subglobose to obovoid, ca. 1.2 cm in diam., glabrous. Seeds few, dark brown, compressed, 7--9 mm, rugulose. Fl. May, fr. Sep.

* Thickets, open or dense forests on slopes; 700--1600 m. S Yunnan.