Laurus pilosa Loureiro, Fl. Cochinch. 1: 253. 1790; Actinodaphne cochinchinensis Meisner; Machilus hainanensis Merrill; M. pilosa (Loureiro) Nees; Tetranthera pilosa (Loureiro) Sprengel.

Trees or shrubs, 4-12 m tall. Young branchlets, bud scales, young leaf blades on both surfaces, and petioles densely ferruginous tomentose. Leaves alternate or in clusters of 3-5; petiole stout, 1.5-3 cm; leaf blade obovate, rarely elliptic, 12-24 × 5-12 cm, pinninerved, lateral veins 5-7(-10) pairs, transverse veins conspicuous abaxially, base cuneate, apex abruptly acute. Umbels clustered in a panicle, 5-flowered; peduncle 1-2 cm. Pedicel ca. 4 mm. Perianth segments 6, elliptic, villous outside. Male flowers: fertile stamens 9; filaments villous, of 3rd whorls each with 2 sessile or shortly stipitate glands at base; rudimentary pistil small or lacking. Female flowers slightly smaller than male flowers; ovary villous; staminodes spatulate, villous at base. Fruit globose, 4-6 mm in diam., seated on subflat disciform perianth tube; fruiting pedicel 3-4 mm, pubescent. Fl. Aug-Dec, fr. Feb-Mar.

Allen (Ann. Missouri Bot. Gard. 25: 404. 1938) recorded this species also from Yunnan, citing A. Henry 13588, but neither this gathering nor others from Yunnan have been seen by the present authors.

The wood may be used for making hair and paper glues. The bark and leaves are used medicinally to treat, for example, coughs, furunculosis, rheumatism, and swelling.

Mixed forests, open thickets; ca. 500 m. Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan [Laos, Vietnam].