Castanopsis microcarpa Hu.

Trees to 10 m tall. Branches glabrous. Petiole 0.8-1.5 cm; leaf blade elliptic, lanceolate, or ovate, 9-20 × 3-7 cm, subleathery, abaxially with tight layers of trichomes, 1st-year leaf blades concolorous, base cuneate to rounded and sometimes oblique, margin entire, apex acuminate; midvein adaxially raised from base to middle and slightly impressed from middle to apex; secondary veins 7-10 on each side of midvein. Infructescences 8-15 cm; rachis 2-4 mm thick, yellowish gray pubescent. Cupule ellipsoid to broadly ovoid, 7-11 mm in diam., outside sparsely covered with spinelike bracts and yellowish gray to grayish brown pubescence and waxy scalelike trichomes, basally shortly stalked, apically narrowly pointed, wall to 0.5 mm thick; bracts 1-3 mm, in rows, 3- or 4-angular in cross section, free or a few connected at base to continuous or discontinuous rings. Nut 1 per cupule, broadly conical, 8-12 × 7-10 mm, glabrescent when mature; scar basal, 6-8 mm in diam. Fl. May-Jul or Oct-Nov, fr. Oct-Nov of following year.

Broad-leaved evergreen forests; 600-2400 m. S to SW Yunnan [Laos, Vietnam]