Trees 10--30 m tall. Trunk to 30 cm d.b.h. Branchlets and petioles densely brown scaly, soon glabrescent. Leaf blade, oblong-elliptic to elliptic-lanceolate, 10--18 X 5--8 cm, papery, abaxially densely gray to yellowish stellate tomentose, adaxially sparsely stellate pubescent or glabrous, base cuneate to broadly cuneate, margin serrulate, apex acute to acuminate, secondary veins 11--15 pairs, tertiary veins subparallel. Panicles, compact, 10--30-flowered, 3--5 cm. Pedicel 1--2 mm. Flowers ca. 1.5 cm. Calyx ca. 4 mm, densely yellow stellate pubescent; teeth ovate-lanceolate, ca. 2 mm. Corolla lobes oblong to elliptic, 1--1.3 cm. Filament tube ca. 1 cm; anthers ca. 3 mm. Style longer than corolla. Fruit oblong, 7--12 mm. Seeds ca. 3.5 mm. Fl. Mar-Apr, fr. Jul-Sep.

Mixed forests; 600--800 m. S Guangxi, SE Yunnan [Vietnam].