Trees to 25 m tall; branchlets of current year and petioles dark brown to blackish and slightly white farinose when dry, glabrous. Petiole 1-1.5 cm; leaf blade lanceolate, 7-12 × 1.5-3 cm, thinly leathery, concolorous, adaxial surface of young leaves oily glossy when dry, base narrowly cuneate and decurrent on petiole, margin entire, apex narrowly acuminate; secondary veins 8-12 on each side of midvein; tertiary veins not visible. Female inflorescences rachis 4-6 mm thick, tomentose and with small. waxy scalelike trichomes; cupules mostly solitary, scattered on rachis, sometimes in clusters of ca. 3 near apex of rachis. Infructescence ca. 4 cm; rachis ca. 3 mm thick; with 2-5 fruit. Cupule discoid, 0.8-1.2 × 1.5-2 cm, enclosing basal part of nut, basally abruptly narrowed, wall to 3 mm near base; basal bracts usually united into 3 or 4 concentric rings, triangular, lax and obscure, appressed. Nut conical, rarely depressed globose, 1.5-2 × 1.6-2 cm, glabrous, apex pointed, wall ca. 1 mm thick; scar 1-1.5 cm in diam., concave. Fl. Feb-Mar, fr. Sep-Oct of following year.

Dense forests in moist places; 1000-1400 m. SE Yunnan [N Vietnam]