Shrubs or trees, 3-8 m tall. Bark gray. Branchlets reddish brown, 3-5 mm in diam., glabrous or sparsely pubescent. Stipules ovate-lanceolate, 0.7-1.5 cm, pubescent. Petiole 1-5(-9) cm; leaf blade elliptic, obovate, ovate-elliptic, narrowly obovate, or rhombic-obovate, 6-16 × 2.5-8 cm, papery, abaxially glabrous or sparsely coarsely hairy and with cystoliths, adaxially glabrous, base cuneate to rounded, margin entire, apex acute to acuminate; basal lateral veins extending 1/3-1/2 length of leaf blade, secondary veins 3-5(-7) on each side of midvein, and axils of basal secondary veins abaxially glandular. Figs axillary on normal leafy shoots, solitary or paired or sometimes densely clustered, red to purple when mature, ± globose, 1-2 cm in diam., glabrous, slightly scabrid, apical pore navel-like, convex; peduncle 3-10 mm; involucral bracts triangular-ovate. Male flowers: near apical pore or scattered, pedicellate; calyx lobes 4; stamens 2. Gall flowers: sessile or shortly pedicellate; calyx lobes 4; ovary ovoid; style glabrous; stigma 2-branched. Female flowers: sessile; calyx lobes 4; style glabrous; stigma 2-branched. Achenes ovoid, smooth. Fl. Sep-Apr, fr. May-Aug.

Berg (in litt.) believes that much Chinese material named as Ficus trivia is better placed within F. erecta (species 46). It has also been confused with F. heteromorpha Hemsley (species 54).

Along streams. N Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, SE Yunnan [N Vietnam].