Trees ca. 25 m tall; bark black-brown; branchlets glabrous, lenticellate. Stipules 3–10 mm, brown-tomentose; petiole 4–8 cm; leaf blade broadly ovate, 8–13 × 8–15 cm, both surfaces glabrous or pubescent in young leaves, palmately 3–5-veined, veins prominent abaxially, lateral lobes triangular-ovate. Male inflorescence globose, several, arranged in racemes, 2–2.5 cm wide, drying black-brown in fruit; peduncle 2–3 cm. Female inflorescence solitary in leaf axils of short shoots, 15–26-flowered; peduncle 3–6 cm, sparsely pubescent. Male flowers: filaments 1–1.5 mm; anthers ovoid. Female flowers: staminode teeth absent or scalelike and sometimes very short; styles 5–7 mm, brown-pubescent. Capsules without persistent staminode teeth, persistent styles recurved. Fertile seeds winged, sterile seeds many, brown, irregularly angular. Fl. Mar–Jun, fr. Jul–Sep.

The wood is used for making furniture.

Montane evergreen forests; 600--1000 m. Anhui, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hubei, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Sichuan.