Trees; branches and leaf blades glabrous. Petiole ca. 1 cm; leaf blade elliptic to ovate-elliptic, 10-15 × 4-6 cm, papery, yellow-green when dry; midvein and secondary veins adaxially slightly raised; secondary veins 9-13 on each side of midvein. Rachis of inflorescences glabrous or very shortly and sparsely mealy puberulent. Female inflorescences 10-25 cm. Cupules shortly stalked when young, subglobose when mature, ca. 3 cm in diam., blackish brown when dry, wall ca. 1 mm thick; bracts spinelike, almost entirely covering cupule, 7-12 mm, slender, free or a few in bundles, glabrous, without scalelike trichomes, basally blackish brown when dry, apically yellowish brown. Nut 1 per cupule, broadly ovoid to subglobose, 1.5-1.8 × 1.2-1.4 cm, glabrous or subglabrous; scar covering more than 3/4 of nut. Fl. Mar-Apr, fr. Oct-Nov.

Broad-leaved evergreen forests; 900-1400 m. S Yunnan [Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam]