Castanea bodinieri H. Léveillé & Vaniot; Castanopsis bodinieri (H. Léveillé & Vaniot) Koidzumi; C. brunnea (H. Léveillé) A. Camus; C. lohfauensis Hu; C. tapuensis Hu; Quercus brunnea H. Léveillé.

Trees. Young shoots purple-brown, slender, sparsely to densely puberulent and with yellowish brown small lamellate waxy scalelike trichomes. Petiole ca. 1 cm or rarely longer; leaf blade lanceolate to obovate-elliptic, 4-9 × 1.5-4 cm or rarely smaller or larger, papery to thinly leathery, pubescent when young but early glabrescent, at least adaxially along midvein with very lax and thick or tight and thin, reddish brown to yellowish brown, small, lamellate, waxy scalelike trichomes, base sharply acute to rounded and inaequilateral, apex mucronate to caudate; midvein adaxially impressed; secondary veins 9-15 on each side of midvein, very slender, evident. Female inflorescence solitary in leaf axil. Infructescence ca. 15 cm. Cupule globose, 2.5-4 cm in diam., splitting into 4 segments, wall ca. 2.5 mm thick; bracts spinelike, completely covering cupule, 6-10 mm, sparsely puberulent, base of some connate into bundles. Nut 1 per cupule, broadly conical, 1-1.5 × 0.8-1.3 cm, glabrous; scar basal. Fl. Apr-Jun, fr. Aug-Nov of following year.

Broad-leaved evergreen forests; near sea level to 1600 m. SE Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, SW Hunan, SE Xizang (Mêdog Xian), S Yunnan [Bhutan, Cambodia, NE India, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, Sikkim, Vietnam]