Trees to 30 m tall; bark grayish green when young, becoming dark gray; crown globose. Branchlets yellowish brown or gray, terete, glabrous. Buds glabrous, viscid, apex acute. Petiole terete, 2-5 cm; leaf blade ovate or broadly ovate, 7-14 × 4-9 cm, long ovate and ca. 25 × 15 cm on sprouts, pilose along veins, glabrescent or not, abaxially shiny, adaxially bright green, base rounded or cordate, margin glandular serrulate or crenate-serrate, ciliate, apex acuminate. Fruiting catkin 11(-13) cm, glabrous. Capsule globose-ovoid, ca. 7 mm, (2 or)3- or 4-valved, sessile or subsessile. Fl. Apr-May, fr. May-Jun.

* Mountains, streamsides; 700-2600 m. Gansu, Hebei, Henan, Hubei, Shaanxi, Sichuan.