Quercus hancei Bentham, Fl. Hongk. 322. 1861; Cyclobalanopsis ternaticupula (Hayata) Kudo; C. ternaticupula f. arisanensis (Hayata) Kudo; Cyclobalanus hancei (Bentham) Oersted; C. ternaticupula (Hayata) Nakai; Lithocarpus arisanensis (Hayata) Hayata; L. jingdongensis Y. C. Hsu & H. J. Qian; L. matsudai Hayata; L. mupinensis (Rehder & E. H. Wilson) A. Camus; L. omeiensis A. Camus; L. spicatus (Smith) Rehder & E. H. Wilson var. mupinensis Rehder & E. H. Wilson; L. subreticulatus (Hayata) Hayata; L. ternaticupulus (Hayata) Hayata; Pasania brevicaudata (Skan) Schottky var. arisanensis (Hayata) Ying; P. confertifolia Hu; P. hancei (Bentham) Schottky; P. hancei var. arisanensis (Hayata) J. C. Liao; P. hancei var. ternaticupula (Hayata) J. C. Liao; P. rhododendrophylla Hu; Q. arisanensis Hayata; Q. subreticulata Hayata; Q. ternaticupula Hayata; Synaedrys hancei (Bentham) Koidzumi; S. kuaruensis Tomiya.

Trees usually less than 15 m tall, glabrous except for inflorescences. Branchlets ± tawny to gray, usually with a thin layer of translucent wax. Petiole 0.5-4 cm; leaf blade variable in shape and size, ovate, broadly elliptic, obovate-elliptic, narrowly elliptic, or lanceolate, 5-10 × 2.5-5 cm, thinly papery to rigidly leathery, concolorous and sometimes adaxially white farinose when dry, base usually decurrent on petiole, margin entire and ± recurved, apex rounded, obtuse, acute, or narrowly acuminate; secondary veins 6-13 on each side of midvein, slender, evident; tertiary veins abaxially obscure, reticulate. Male inflorescences usually in a panicle, sometimes with female flowers from base to middle, rarely longer than 10 cm; rachis sometimes twisted. Female inflorescences 2-many congested at apex of branches; cupules usually in clusters of 3-5, rarely solitary. Infructescence 6-8 cm; rachis less than 8 mm thick. Cupule shallowly bowl-shaped to plate-shaped, 3-7 mm × 1-2 cm, enclosing nearly 1/3 of nut, wall 1-2 mm thick; bracts imbricate and appressed or connate into a few concentric rings, triangular, squamose. Nut depressed globose, subglobose, or broadly conical, 0.8-2 × 0.6-2.5 cm, apex rounded, pointed, or rarely flat, wall ca. 0.5 mm thick; scar 5-10 mm in diam., concave. Fl. Jul-Aug, fr. Aug-Nov of following year.

* Various habitats; below 2600 m. Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Yunnan, Zhejiang