Echinocarpus sinensis Hance, J. Bot. 22: 108. 1884; Castanopsis cavaleriei H. Léveillé; Sloanea chinensis Hu (1925), not Sloanea sinensis (Hance) Hemsley (1900); S. hongkongensis Hemsley; S. kweichowensis Hu; S. oligophlebia Chun & K. C. Ting; S. parvifolia Chun & F. C. How.

Trees to 20 m tall. Branchlets glabrous. Petiole 1-4 cm, glabrous; leaf blade variable, usually oblong or narrowly obovate, rarely orbicular or lanceolate, 6-9(-12) × 3-5 cm, thinly leathery, glabrous, lateral veins 5-7 per side, base cuneate, or narrowed and obtuse-rounded, margin usually entire, rarely sparsely dentate along upper margin, apex acute. Flowers fascicled. Pedicel 3-6 cm, gray pubescent. Sepals 4, broadly ovate, 6-8 × 5-6 mm, both surfaces puberulent. Petals 4, white, 7-9 mm, both surfaces puberulent, 6- or 7-incised at apices. Stamens ca. 82, ca. as long as petals; anthers ca. 3 × as long as filaments, awned at apices. Ovary ovoid, 6-loculed, 4-5 mm, pubescent; style simple, 4-6 mm, puberulent in lower 1/2. Capsule variable in size, 2-5 cm in diam., 3-7-valved; valves variable in size, 2-3.5 cm, 3-5 mm thick; prickles 1-1.5 cm; endocarp purple-red. Seeds black, shiny, 1-1.3 cm; aril yellow, ca. 5 mm. Fl. Jun-Oct, fr. May-Nov, most frequently in Aug-Oct.

Evergreen forests, often in valleys or near streams; 700-1000 m. Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Hunan, Jiangxi, Zhejiang [Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam].