Trees to 20 m tall. Trunk to 50 cm d.b.h.; bark gray-brown, scabrous. Young branches yellow-brown pubescent at first, soon glabrate, old ones conspicuously lenticellate. Buds shiny red-brown; scales 6–8, margin puberulous. Petiole 1–2.5 cm, sparsely villous; leaf blade pale green adaxially when old, 5–15 × 2.5–7 cm, brown pubescent at first, later pubescent only along veins, lateral veins 6–9-paired, together with reticulate veins slightly prominent abaxially, concave adaxially. Male flowers: stamens ca. 1 cm, glabrous, filaments ca. 1 mm. Female flower: ovary ca. 1 cm, glabrous. Samara 2.5–3.5 × 1–1.3 cm; stipe 2–5 mm, articulate at 1–3 mm pedicel. Seed 1.3–1.5 cm × ca. 3 mm. Fl. Mar–May, fr. Jun–Nov.

Eucommia ulmoides is a rare species in the wild in China, although it is much cultivated. The timber is used for furniture and fuel; the bark, which contains aucubin, is used medicinally as an invigorator, a tonic for arthritis, and for reducing blood pressure; and the solidified latex is used for lining pipes, insulating electric cables, and for filling teeth.

Mixed forests, sparse forests, thickets, lower mountains, ridges, valleys, dry ravines, fields, also widely cultivated and locally becoming naturalized; 100--2000 m. Gansu, Guizhou, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Yunnan, Zhejiang; cultivated in Anhui and Beijing.