Replaced synonym: Sterculia brevipetiolata H. T. Tsai & P. I Mao, Acta Phytotax. Sin. 9: 201. 1964, not Sterculia brevipetiolata Merrill, Publ. Bur. Sci. Gov. Lab. 35: 40. 1906.

Small trees or shrubs. Branchlets yellow-brown villous when very young. Leaves apically clustered. Stipules lanceolate, ca. 7 mm; petiole short, almost absent or 5-12 mm, gray pubescent; leaf blade oblanceolate or narrowly oblanceolate-elliptic, 15-30 × 4-7 cm, papery, both surfaces glabrous, lateral veins 14-16 on each side of midrib, base attenuate, apex acuminate or obtusely acute. Inflorescence slender, racemose or paniculate, axillary, pendulous. Epicalyx lobes linear-lanceolate, ca. 7 mm, as long as pedicels. Calyx pink, purple below middle, sparsely stellate villous, tube campanulate, lobes elliptic-lanceolate, ca. 8 × 3 mm, ca. 3 × as long as calyx tube. Androgynophore slender, curved, ca. 4.5 mm. Ovary globose, densely tomentose; style reflexed. Fruit stipe ca. 3 cm; follicle red-brown, ellipsoid, ca. 8 × 2 cm, abaxially densely puberulent, both ends attenuate. Seeds brown, globose, ca. 1 cm in diam. Fl. Apr.

The subsessile, oblanceolate leaf blades of Sterculia brevissima, clustered at the tips of the branchlets, are very distinct from those of other species.

The earlier intended nomen novum "Sterculia brevissima" (H. H. Hsue, Acta Phytotax. Sin. 15(1): 74. 1977) was not validly published because a full and direct reference to the place of publication of the replaced synonym was not given (Vienna Code, Art. 33.4).

● Gullies or slopes in mixed forests or rain forests; 500-1300 m. S Yunnan.