Forrestia hispida A. Richard in Dumont d’Urville, Voy. Astrolabe 2: t. 1. 1834; F. chinensis N. E. Brown; Tupistra cavaleriei H. Léveillé.

Stems erect, to more than 1 m × 0.5--1.5 cm. Leaf sheaths to 4 cm, densely brownish yellow hirsute; leaf blade elliptic, 15--50 × 5--10.5 cm, brownish yellow hirsute near margin on both surfaces and below middle of abaxial major veins, base cuneate, apex acuminate. Heads with 25 or more flowers, 4--6 cm in diam. in fruit. Sepals obovate, ca. 5 mm at anthesis, to 13 mm in fruit, abaxially densely brown hirsute along midvein, rarely subglabrous, elsewhere glabrous or very sparsely hairy. Petals white. Capsule ovoid-globose, trigonous, ca. 7 mm, much shorter than persistent sepals, sparsely hirsutulous near obtuse apex. Seeds ca. 3 × 2 mm, rugose. Fl. Jul--Aug, fr. Sep.

The indumentum on the sepals and capsule varies greatly in density.

Forests or streamsides in ravines; near sea level to 2100 m. S Fujian (Nanjing Xian), Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Taiwan, SE Xizang (Mêdog Xian), Yunnan [Cambodia, Indonesia, Japan (Ryukyu Islands), Laos, Malaysia, New Guinea, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam].