Trees to 18 m tall; bark gray or black-gray, scaly fissured. Branchlets brown or yellow-brown, glabrous or sparsely villous when young and glabrescent or densely pubescent and villous. Petiole 1.5-2 cm, glabrescent or sparsely villous to densely pubescent or tomentose; leaf blade ovate, ovate-oblong, or obovate-oblong, 8-15 × 4-5 cm, abaxially sparsely to densely villous along midvein and lateral veins or densely pubescent and tomentose, adaxially sparsely villous or glabrescent, base unequally cordate, margin irregularly and doubly setiform serrate, apex acuminate or caudate-acuminate; lateral veins 15-20 on each side of midvein. Female inflorescence 5-12 × 4-4.5 cm; peduncle 3-4 cm, sparsely pubescent or glabrescent; bracts densely overlapping, broadly ovate-oblong, 1.5-2.5 × 1-1.3 cm, glabrous except abaxially bearded at base, outer margin remotely serrate and inflexed, inner margin remotely serrate distally, with oblong basal lobe enclosing nutlet; veins 5, reticulate veins faint. Nutlet oblong, 4-6 × ca. 2 mm, glabrous, faintly ribbed. Fl. May-Jun, fr. Jul-Aug. 2n = 16.

The wood is used for making agricultural tools and furniture.

Forests on moist mountain slopes; 200-2500 m. Anhui, Gansu, Guizhou, Hebei, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Liaoning, S Ningxia, Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanxi, Sichuan, Zhejiang [Japan, Korea, Russia]