Trees to 20 m tall, andromonoecious. Bark brown or grayish brown. Branchlets reddish green, stout, glabrous and with light stripes (as in A. sect. Macrantha); winter buds subglobose, outside glabrous, margin slightly ciliate. Leaves deciduous; petiole 7-12 cm, slender, glabrous; leaf blade abaxially pale green, adaxially dark green, usually longer than broad, 4-12(-20) × 5-20 cm, papery, adaxially glabrous, primary veins 3-7, reticulate veins conspicuous abaxially, base rounded, 3-, 5-, or 7-lobed, occasionally with leaves small, entire; middle lobe triangular-ovate, apex acuminate; lateral lobes obtuse or triangular-ovate. Flowers yellowish green. Sepals 5. Petals 5. Disk amphistaminal, glabrous. Inflorescence corymbose, ca. 5 cm. Fruiting pedicel 2-2.5 cm. Nutlets oblong, compressed, ± flat, 1-1.5 cm × ca. 6 mm; samara wing including nutlet 2-5 cm × 5-9 mm, wings spreading variously. Fl. Apr, fr. Aug.

Mixed forests; 1500-3000 m. Guizhou, W Hubei, S Shaanxi, Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan [Bhutan, N India, Kashmir, Nepal, Pakistan; SW Asia, S Europe (S Italy)].