Evergreen shrubs or trees, 2-10(-15) m tall, 10-15 cm d.b.h. Bark gray, longitudinally split striate. Branchlets brown, striate, densely yellow-brown villous, later slightly villous. Terminal bud broadly ovate, ca. 7 mm; bud scales densely yellow-brown pubescent except margin. Leaves alternate; petiole stout, 5-7(-10) mm, densely yellow-brown pubescent; leaf blade shiny adaxially, broadly ovate, elliptic, narrowly elliptic, elliptic-lanceolate, or lanceolate, 6-11(-15) × (3-)3.5-6(-7.5) cm, leathery, densely or sometimes laxly yellow-brown villous abaxially, slightly yellow-brown pubescent on midrib adaxially, lateral veins 6-8 pairs, rather thick, midrib convex abaxially, concave adaxially, base acute or cuneate, sometimes subrounded, apex acute. Umbels solitary or 2-4-fascicled in leaf axil, with 2-3 mm long peduncle and involucral bracts, male umbel 8-flowered, female umbel (2 or)3-6-flowered. Male flowers yellow; pedicels 4-5.5 mm, densely yellow-brown pubescent; tepals 6, ovate, ca. 3.5 × 2 mm, yellow-brown pubescent or glabrous on keel outside, glabrous inside; stamens 9, 4-4.5 mm; filaments glabrous, 2-glandular near middle in 3rd whorl; glands broadly reniform, cornute; pistil reduced; ovary ovate, ca. 1.5 mm; style ca. 1 mm; stigma obscure. Female flowers yellow; pedicels 3-5 mm; tepals 6, broadly ovate, ca. 2 × 1.5 mm; reduced stamens 9, ca. 1.5 mm, 2-glandular at middle of filament in 3rd whorl; glands rounded-reniform, nearly equal to length of filament; anther sterile or reduced to 1-celled, sometimes fertile and 2-celled; ovary obovate, ca. 2 mm, glabrous; style stout, ca. 1 mm, glabrous; stigma capitate. Fruits subglobose, red at maturity; stipes stout, 5-7 mm, thickened toward apex, slightly yellow-brown pubescent. Fl. May-Jun, fr. Jul-Oct.

Evergreen broad-leaved forests in valleys or on mountain slopes; 700-2500 m. Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Jiangxi, Sichuan, SE Xizang, Yunnan [Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Vietnam].