Trees to 15 m tall; bark gray, pruinose. Branchlets russet or yellowish russet, stout, glabrous. Buds brown, conical, large, ca. 2 cm, viscid. Leaves of short branchlets with petiole terete, 3-7 cm, pilose; leaf blade broadly ovate or ovate, 7-14 × 4-11 cm, abaxially pale, adaxially dark green, both surfaces whitish long pubescent along veins, base shallowly cordate or subrounded, margin crenate, ciliate, apex apiculate or shortly acuminate, often twisted. Leaves of sprouts with petiole terete, ca. 7 cm, subglabrous; leaf blade broadly ovate or ovate-elliptic, ca. 27 × 22 cm, abaxially pale, adaxially dark green, base cordate, margin irregularly and coarsely glandular dentate, apex apiculate. Male catkin 3-6 cm; bracts brown, laciniate, glabrous. Fruiting catkin to 15 cm; rachis glabrous. Capsule ovoid, downy, rarely glabrous, (2 or)3-valved, subsessile. Fl. Apr, fr. Jun.

* Forests; 1000-1600 m. Hebei (Wuling Shan), Shaanxi (Guanshan)