Trees circa 20 m tall. Branches glabrous. Petiole 0.8-1.5 cm; leaf blade ovate, oblong, or obovate elliptic, 10-18 × 3-6 cm, covered with early glabrescent, reddish brown, small, lamellate, waxy scalelike trichomes when young, yellowish gray to silver-gray with age, base rounded to broadly cuneate and oblique, margin serrate or entire, apex acute to acuminate; midvein flat or adaxially slightly impressed; secondary veins 9-13 on each side of midvein. Female flowers 1-3 per cupule. Infructescences 8-15 cm. Cupule subglobose to broadly ellipsoid, 3-4 cm in diam., irregularly splitting into 2-4 segments, outside grayish brown pubescent; bracts spinelike, circa 3 mm, basally connate into bundles, sometimes united to cristate rings, grayish brown pubescent. Nuts 1-3 per cupule, broadly conical, 1.5-2 × 1.4-2 cm, wall 1.5-2 mm thick, densely brown pubescent; scar covering circa 1/3 of nut. Fl. May-Jun, fr. Sep-Nov of following year

* Broad-leaved evergreen forests; 1500-2500 m. NW Guizhou, Sichuan, NE Yunnan.