Machilus bombycina King ex J. D. Hooker; M. suaveolens S. K. Lee; Persea bombycina (King ex J. D. Hooker) Kostermans; P. gamblei (King ex J. D. Hooker) Kostermans; P. suaveolens (S. K. Lee) Kostermans.

Trees, to 25 m tall; trunk to 40 cm d.b.h. Bark blackish brown or brownish. Branchlets slender, terete, with 3-5 circular scars, young shoots with densely gray-yellow pubescence, becoming glabrate. Terminal buds tomentose. Petiole 5-20 mm, sericeous; leaf blade oblong, obovate, or oblanceolate, (5-)6-15 × 1.5-5.5 cm, thinly leathery, ferruginous appressed sericeous on both surfaces when young, abaxially glaucescent-green and minutely pubescent especially along veins and adaxially glabrate when old, midrib abaxially elevated, adaxially concave, lateral veins 7-10 pairs, slightly conspicuous on both surfaces, veinlets inconspicuous. Numerous panicles arising from lower part of young shoots, 4-13 cm; peduncle (2-)4-8.5 cm, densely grayish sericeous. Flowers white or yellowish. Perianth lobes subequal, oblong, ca. 4 × 1.5 mm, densely minutely gray-white sericeous. Stamens ca. 3 mm, barbate at base; glands of 3rd series shortly stipitate. Staminodes sagittate. Ovary subglobose. Fruit globose, 7-8 mm in diam., blackish when ripe. Fl. Mar-Apr, fr. May-Jun.

Slopes, open or dense forests in valleys, lowlands. Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, SE Xizang (Mêdog), Yunnan [Bhutan, Cambodia, India, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand, Vietnam].