Shrubs or trees, evergreen. Twigs glabrous. Buds often superimposed, with 2–4 imbricate scales. Leaf petiole often reddish when young; leaf blade leathery, margin entire. Inflorescences axillary, paniculate or racemose. Pedicel short. Flowers small, 5-merous. Corolla campanulate or urceolate to tubular. Stamens much shorter than corolla; filaments geniculate, swollen near base, lacking appendages; anthers ± ovoid, dehiscing by introrse-terminal elliptic pores. Ovary superior, with many ovules per locule. Capsule depressed-globose, thick-walled, loculicidal. Seeds large; testa unilaterally winged.

Craibiodendron forrestii W. W. Smith (Notes Roy. Bot. Gard. Edinburgh 5: 160. 1912), described from W Yunnan (Nujiang valley), is a species of Quercus.

Five species: Cambodia, China, India, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam; four species in China.

(Authors: Fang Ruizheng (方瑞征 Fang Rhui-cheng); Peter F. Stevens)