Trees to 15 m tall; bark gray, rough. Branchlets brown-gray, slender, sericeous-pubescent when young, becoming glabrous and intensely purplish. Petiole 3-5 mm, densely pubescent; leaf blade elliptic-oblong or narrowly oblong, 3-10 × 1.8-4 cm, abaxially sparsely pubescent and hirtellous, densely pubescent along midvein, adaxially glabrous except pubescent along midvein, base subrounded or broadly cuneate, margin irregularly and doubly sharply serrate, sometimes setiform serrate, apex acuminate or caudate-acuminate; lateral veins 13-16 on each side of midvein, 4-7 mm apart. Female inflorescence loosely racemose, 2-3 cm; peduncle 1.5-2 cm, densely pubescent, bracts obovate-elliptic or obovate-lanceolate, saccate, 2-2.6 cm × 6-8 mm, membranous, minutely pubescent along veins and reticulate veins, base constricted into a stipe, setose, apex rounded, apiculate. Nutlet red-brown, narrowly oblong, 7-10 × 2.5-3 mm, shiny, glabrous, obscurely ribbed. Fl. May-Jun, fr. Jul-Aug.

This species is endangered; only one tree is known at a roadside.

* Subtropical forests; 200-400 m. NW Zhejiang (Tianmu Shan)