Castanopsis goniacantha A. Camus; C. lamontii var. shanghangensis Q. F. Zheng; C. pachyrachis Hickel & A. Camus; C. robustispina Hu.

Trees 8-15(-25) m tall; branches, leaf blades, and rachis of inflorescences glabrous. Petiole 1.5-3 cm; leaf blade elliptic, ovate, or oblong, 12-30 × 4-10 cm, thickly papery to subleathery, base rounded to acute and oblique, margin entire or sometimes apically with few shallow teeth, apex acuminate; midvein adaxially flat; secondary veins 10-15 on each side of midvein. Female inflorescences axillary, borne above male catkins; flowers 3(-7) per cupule. Infructescences 10-20 cm; rachis thick, base 6-10 mm thick. Cupule globose, subglobose, or ovoid, 2.5-6 cm in diam., wall 1.5-7 mm thick; bracts spinelike, thick, ca. 1.5 cm, connate into bundles with a deer-hornlike pattern, or base connate and united to 4-6-cristate rings. Nuts 2 or 3 per cupule, broadly conical, (1.5-)2-2.8 (-4.8) × (1.5-)3(-3.8) cm, densely pubescent; scar covering 2/5-1/2 of nut. Fl. Mar-May, fr. Sep-Nov of following year.

Montane and broad-leaved evergreen forests; 500-2500 m. S Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, S Guizhou, S Hunan, S Jiangxi, SE Yunnan [N Vietnam]