Castanopsis brevispina Hayata; C. brevistella Hayata & Kanehira ex A. Camus; C. ceratacantha Rehder & E. H. Wilson var. semiserrata (Hickel & A. Camus) A. Camus; C. hickelii A. Camus; C. kusanoi Hayata; C. matsudai Hayata ex A. Camus; C. ninbienensis Hickel & A. Camus; C. quangtriensis Hickel & A. Camus; C. semiserrata Hickel & A. Camus; C. sinsuiensis Kanehira; C. stellatospina Hayata; C. tenuispinula Hickel & A. Camus; C. traninhensis Hickel & A. Camus.

Trees 8-20 m tall. Young shoots sparsely pubescent. Petiole rarely to 1.5 cm; leaf blade ovate, narrowly oblong, or lanceolate, 8-18 × 2.5-5 cm, leathery, base oblique and rounded to rarely cuneate, margin serrate or rarely entire, apex acuminate and rarely mucronate; midvein adaxially conspicuously impressed; secondary vein 9-15 on each side of midvein. Rachis of male catkins sparsely pubescent. Female flowers 2 or 3 per cupule. Infructescences 8-17 cm. Cupule globose, broadly ellipsoid, or ovoid, 2-4 cm in diam., splitting irregularly, wall ca. 1 mm thick; bracts spinelike, 5-10 mm, brown to yellowish brown when dry, sparsely pubescent to glabrescent, base connate into bundles, apex branched. Nut (1 or)2(or 3) per cupule, conical, 1-1.4 × 1-1.2 cm, glabrous; scar basal, 8-10 mm in diam. Fl. Apr-May, fr. Sep-Nov of following year.

Broad-leaved evergreen forests; 100-2000 m. Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hunan, Jiangxi, Taiwan, Yunnan, Zhejiang [Laos, Vietnam]