Trees to 40 m tall; bark grayish white, rugged and fissured toward base of trunk, smooth above; crown ovoid-globose. Branchlets greenish brown or purplish, angled or only slightly angled, stout, glabrous; old branchlets at first yellowish brown, becoming gray, terete. Buds purplish, glabrous or pubescent, viscid, apex acute. Leaves appearing reddish, short branchlets with petiole 2.5-8 cm; leaf blade broadly ovate, ovate-orbicular, or ovate-lanceolate, 8-18 × 5-15 cm, glabrous or pubescent, base rounded, cuneate, or shallowly cordate, margin glandular dentate, at first ciliate. Sprouts with petiole 2-4 cm; leaf blade usually long ovate-elliptic, 11-20(-28) × 5-11(-16) cm, abaxially with yellowish green midvein, base subcordate or rounded, margin glandular crenate, apex acute or shortly acuminate. Fruiting catkin 10-20 cm or more; rachis glabrous. Capsule ovoid, 7-9 mm, glabrous, 3- or 4-valved, subsessile. Fl. Apr-May, fr. May-Jun.

* Forests, mountains; 1100-4600 m. Gansu, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan.