Trees 4--12 m tall. Trunk 9--25 cm d.b.h. Branchlets densely brown stellate pubescent. Leaves alternate; petiole 3--5 mm; leaf blade ovate, oblong, or ovate-lanceolate, 5--14 X 2--4(--5.5) cm, papery, sparsely stellate pubescent or glabrous, base broadly cuneate to rounded, margin serrate or rarely entire, apex acuminate to shortly acuminate, secondary veins 5--7 pairs, tertiary veins reticulate and abaxially conspicuously raised. Inflorescences racemes or panicles, many-flowered, 3--10 cm. Pedicel 3--8 mm. Flowers 1--1.3 cm. Calyx 3--4 X 3--4 mm, densely yellow stellate tomentose and pubescent, teeth 5. Corolla outside puberulous, inside glabrous, tube 2--3 mm; lobes oblong-lanceolate, 7--9 X 2--3 mm. Stamens shorter than corolla; filaments expanded, slightly flexuous at middle, free parts basally white villose. Fruit ellipsoid to ellipsoid-ovoid, 8--16 X 6--8 mm, densely gray-brown stellate tomentose, sometimes sparsely stellate villose, apex slightly oblique and acute to apiculate. Seeds 1 or 2, dark brown, smooth or rugose, stellate pubescent or glabrous. Fl. Mar-May, fr. Jul-Nov.

Sparse forests; 500--1700 m. S Guangdong, S Guangxi, Hainan, Taiwan, SE Xizang, S Yunnan [Bhutan, India, Laos, W Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand, Vietnam].