Trees, to 50 m or taller, to 1.9 m d.b.h. Buds, young twigs, young petioles, and young leaf blades pale yellow appressed pubescent. Twigs ascending and forming a narrow umbelliform crown. Stipular scar 0.3-1 × as long as petiole. Petiole 2-4 cm; leaf blade elliptic or ovate, 10-20(-30) × 4.5-10 cm, abaxially slightly puberulous, base broadly cuneate, cuneate, or rounded, apex long acuminate to subcaudate. Flowers fragrant. Tepals 15-20, yellow, oblanceolate, 2-4 × 0.4-0.5 cm. Staminal connective exserted and forming a long tip. Gynophore ca. 3 mm; gynoecium with trichomes. Fruit 7-15 cm; mature carpels obovoid-ellipsoid, 1-1.5 cm, tuberculate. Seeds 2-4 per carpel, rugose. Fl. Jun-Jul, fr. Sep-Oct.

Evergreen broad-leaved forests; 200-1600 m. S Xizang, S and SW Yunnan; cultivated in Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Taiwan [India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand, Vietnam].