Trees to 10 m tall; monoecious or dioecious. Bark dark brown. Branchlets pale brown pubescent. Stipules lanceolate, membranous, brown pubescent. Petiole 1.5-2.5 cm, pubescent; leaf blade broadly ovate, unlobed, 6-12(-20) × 7-11 cm, thick, abaxially pale green, shortly pubescent, and tomentose, adaxially dark green and coarse, base cordate, margin regularly and coarsely serrate, apex acute to shortly acuminate. Male catkins cylindric, 2-4 cm, pubescent. Female catkins ellipsoid, 2-2.5 cm; peduncle short. Female flowers: style inconspicuous; stigmas without mastoidlike protuberance, 2-branched and pubescent. Syncarp blackish purple when mature, elliptic, 2-2.5 × 1.5-2.5 cm.

This species is a valuable fruit tree in some countries.

Cultivated. Hebei, Shandong, Xinjiang (mainly) [native to W Iran; widely cultivated elsewhere].