Trees to 5 m tall. Bark grayish white. Branches pubescent when young, glabrous and lenticellate with age. Petiole 3-4 mm, transversely striate, puberulent or glabrescent; leaf blade elliptic, ovate, or sometimes oblong-elliptic, 4.5-11.5 × 2-4.5 cm, papery, puberulent or glabrous, midvein adaxially impressed, secondary veins 10-13 on each side of midvein and adaxially flat, base rounded, apex shortly acuminate to acute. Inflorescences superaxillary, 1- or 2-flowered; peduncle ca. 6 mm; bracts 11 or 12. Pedicel ca. 1 cm, with 7 or 8 persistent bracteoles. Sepals triangular, ca. 3 × 2 mm, outside pubescent, inside glabrous, apex acuminate or acute. Outer petals ovate, ca. 7 × 5 mm; inner petals slightly smaller than outer petals. Stamens ovoid; connectives apically acute. Carpels 1-5, ovoid-oblong, pubescent; ovules ca. 10 per carpel, in 2 series; stigmas subglobose, glabrous, apex 2-cleft. Fruiting pedicel ca. 1.3 cm, with 7 or 8 bracteoles; monocarps 1-5, ovoid to subglobose, 2-2.5 × 1.2-2 cm, densely pubescent. Fl. Mar-Jun, fr. Jun-Sep.

Alphonsea squamosa was treated as a synonym of the following species, A. boniana, by Kessler (Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 118: 86-87. 1995).

Forested slopes, usually in ravines; 1500-2300 m. Guangxi, Yunnan [Vietnam].