Trees ca. 15 m tall; branches and leaf blades glabrous. Branchlets brownish black when dry, covered with a thin grayish waxy layer. Petiole 2-5 mm; leaf blade broadly ovate, (6-)12-18 × (4-)8-11 cm, leathery, base shortly attenuate to broadly cuneate, margin entire, apex mucronate and oblique; midvein adaxially flat; secondary veins 8-12 on each side of midvein. Rachis of male catkins glabrous. Infructescence rachis ca. 5 mm thick. Cupule ca. 3.5 cm in diam., outside pubescent, wall ca. 2 mm thick; bracts spinelike, densely covering cupules, 6-8 mm, transversely united to discontinuous cristate rings. Nuts 3 per cupule, broadly ovoid, ca. 1.2 × 1.2-1.4 cm, pubescent; scar basal, round to slightly elliptic, 5-7 mm in diam. to 5-7 × 7-10 mm. Fl. Apr-May, fr. Aug-Oct of following year.

Broad-leaved evergreen forests; 1000-1300 m. SW Guangxi [N Thailand, NE Vietnam]