Trees 10-15 m tall; branches, leaf blades, and rachis of inflorescences glabrous. Young shoots dark purplish brown, angulate. Petiole 1-1.5 cm; leaf blade ovate, broadly elliptic, or ovate-elliptic, 8-18 × 4-9 cm, thickly leathery, base rounded and oblique, margin entire or rarely with 1-3 shallow teeth apically, apex caudate and bent; midvein adaxially impressed to flat; secondary veins 9-12 on each side of midvein. Inflorescences sometimes androgynous, ca. 20 cm. Female flowers 3 per cupule. Cupule subglobose and with 1 or 2 nuts or broadly ellipsoid and with 3 nuts, 3-4 cm in diam., splitting irregularly, wall 2-3 mm thick; bracts spinelike, 4-7 mm, yellowish brown pubescent, basally connate into bundles, often a few bundles connected to cristate rings. Nuts 1-3 per cupule, broadly conical, 1.5-1.8 × 1.7-2 cm, densely brown pubescent; scar covering ca. 2/5 of nut. Fl. May-Jun, fr. Sep-Oct of following year.

* Mixed and broad-leaved evergreen forests; 1000-2000 m. N Guangdong, NE Guangxi, SE Guizhou, S Hunan, S Jiangxi