Trees to 15 m tall, straight, deciduous. Branchlets brownish black, wrinkled, 1-2.5 mm thick. Young buds with short rust-colored pubescence. Petiole blackish, thin, 1.8-2.8 cm, with short rust-colored pubescence when young, glabrate; leaf blade elliptic to narrowly elliptic, 5-11 × 2-4 cm, thinly papery, abaxially greenish brown and with very small white papillae, adaxially nearly black and glabrous, base cuneate to broadly cuneate and ± asymmetric, margin entire, apex acuminate to caudate and with a 0.5-1.5 cm cauda; midvein and secondary veins conspicuous on both surfaces, tertiary veins inconspicuous. Inflorescences axillary, solitary. Male inflorescences 4-7 mm in diam. Female inflorescences white when young, rust-colored-green when dry, obconic, 5-9 mm, basally tuberculate, apex blunt; peduncle 1-1.5 cm, thin. Mature fruiting syncarp unknown.

* Dense moist forests; ca. 1000 m. S Yunnan (Jinping).