Trees 2-5 m tall. Branchlets grayish puberulent at apex, blackish when dry, densely lenticellate; lenticels gray. Petiole 1.5-2.5 cm; leaf blade ovate to elliptic, 8-15 × 3.5-6 cm, subleathery, with reddish brown, lamellate, glaucous, pulverulous scalelike glands when young, base acute, margin entire, apex narrowly acuminate to caudate; secondary veins 8-12 on each side of midvein, adaxially slightly impressed, usually fusing near margin; tertiary veins abaxially inconspicuous. Male inflorescences racemose or rarely paniculate, 8-12 cm. Infructescences 5-12 cm; rachis 6-12 mm thick; cupules in clusters of ca. 3. Cupule cupular, 0.6-1.2 × 1.4-2.2 cm, enclosing 1/2 or slightly more of nut, wall 2-4 mm thick; bracts imbricate, broadly triangular, appressed, with reddish, lamellate scalelike glands and short hairs. Nut depressed globose, 1.1-1.6 × 1.4-2.2 cm, usually with longitudinal fissures, glabrous, apex ± flat, wall ca. 0.5 mm thick; scar at basal part of nut, 1.2-1.6 cm in diam., slightly convex. Fr. Aug-Sep.

* Sunny dry slopes, usually associated with shrubs, bamboo, and ferns; circa 2500 m. C Yunnan (Jingdong Xian, Xinping Yizu Daizu Zizhixian)