Trees, to 26 m tall, d.b.h. to 90 cm, deciduous. Bark grayish white, dark gray, or grayish brown, longitudinally fissured. Branchlets purplish brown to tan, glabrous or pubescent, unwinged. Winter buds brown, ovoid-orbicular to oblong-ovoid; bud scales glabrous or finely and inconspicuously puberulent, margin entire or inconspicuously short-ciliate. Petiole 1-13 mm, glabrous or pubescent; leaf blade elliptic, long orbicular-elliptic, narrowly elliptic, obovate-oblong, or ovate, 6-18 × 3-8.5 cm, abaxially pubescent in vein axils or over whole blade, adaxially glabrous and often scabrous, base ± oblique, margin doubly serrate, apex caudate, acuminate-caudate, or cuspidate-caudate; secondary veins (15-)17-26 on each side of midvein. Inflorescences fascicled cymes on second year branchlets. Flowers from floral buds. Perianth campanulate, 4-6-lobed, margin ciliate. Samaras tan to light brown, broadly obovate, obovate-orbicular, orbicular, or long orbicular, 1.2-1.8 × 1-1.6 cm, glabrous except for pubescence on stigmatic surface in notch; stalk shorter than perianth, ± pubescent; perianth persistent. Seed at center or slightly toward base of samara. Fl. and fr. Feb-Apr.

* Forests; 1500-2900 m. Anhui, Gansu, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Sichuan, SE Xizang, Yunnan, Zhejiang.