Trees to 20 m tall, to 30 cm in diam. Branches robust, with small, hollow pith; twigs sometimes robust, lenticellate, gray-brown, irregularly striate, with short internodes. Petiole 1-2 cm; leaf blade oblanceolate, obovate, or oblong, (5-)9-16 × 2-5 cm, papery, midvein raised abaxially, impressed adaxially; secondary veins many, dense, 30-36 pairs, oblique, joining at leaf margin; tertiary veins and veinlets slender, conspicuous on both surfaces, base cuneate-decurrent, margin somewhat recurved, apex obtusely acuminate, apiculate, or rounded, sometimes strongly emarginate. Plant dioecious. Male flowers 0.8-1 cm in diam., in a terminal or axillary thyrse; thyrse 8-10 cm, pedunculate; peduncle conspicuously articulate, sometimes 2-foliate at base; pedicels robust, 3-5 mm, 2-bracteolate at base; bracteoles opposite, subulate; sepal ca. 2.5 mm; petals yellow, ca. as long as or slightly longer than sepal; stamens united into 4 bundles; bundle stalk robust, somewhat complanate, broader on lower part, ca. 3 mm, each with 60-70 anthers aggregated into a head, 2-celled, cells longitudinally dehiscent; pistillode semiglobose, slightly angular. Female flowers in a paniculiform thyrse; thyrse axillary, ca. 10 cm; staminode bundles 4, each with 15-20 antherodes, sometimes among them a few fertile, shorter than pistil; bundle stalk 1.5-2 mm; ovary turbinate, 4-loculed; stigma sessile, peltate, 4-lobed, 2.5-3 mm. Young fruit ellipsoid, smooth. Fl. Apr-May, fr. Jun-Aug.

The fruit is slightly sour. The yellowish timber is used for house construction.

This species is close to Garcinia multiflora Champion ex Bentham but easily distinguished from it by its oblanceolate leaves, smaller flowers, non-columnar pistillode, and 4-loculed ovary. A few stamens in the carpellate flower may be fertile. The mature fruit is unknown.

The specimens cited by Hu in the protologue of Garcinia yunnanensis, except for the type and one other (C. W. Wang 73277, male, and C. W. Wang 73278, female), all are G. cowa Roxburgh.

● Mixed forests on mountain slopes or hills; 1300-1600 m. SW Yunnan.