Description from
Flora of China
Fraxinus inopinata Lingelsheim; F. spaethiana Lingelsheim.
Trees to 28 m tall. Branchlets puberulent or glabrous. Leaves 10-25(-30) cm; petiole 5-6 cm, dilated and semi-amplexicaul at base; axis densely pubescent, glabrescent; leaflets 7-11, sessile or subsessile; leaflet blade oblong-elliptic, (4-)6-14 X (1-)2-3.5 cm, thinly leathery, adaxially glabrous, densely yellowish villous along midvein abaxially or glabrescent, base blunt or broadly cuneate, slightly oblique, margin obscurely serrulate, apex acuminate to shortly acuminate; primary veins 10-15 on each side of midvein. Cymose panicles lateral at branches of previous year, 12-15 cm. Flowers polygamodioecious, appearing before leaves. Corolla absent. Calyx of bisexual flowers campanulate, ca. 1.5 mm; teeth deltate. Samara oblong-elliptic, 4-6 cm X 7-10 mm; wing decurrent to base of nutlet. Fl. Apr-May, fr. Aug.
Mixed woods on slopes or in valleys; 1200-2800 m. Gansu, Guizhou, Hubei, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Yunnan [Japan].