Trees 10-20 m tall; 1st-year branchlets and bud scales glabrous. Petiole 3-7(-10) mm; leaf blade lanceolate to oblong, sometimes obovate-elliptic to oblanceolate, 6-11 × 1.5-3.5 cm, subleathery, abaxially brownish when young and dry but grayish with age and with tight layers of scalelike trichomes, base broadly cuneate and often slightly oblique, margin serrate from middle to apex or entire, apex acuminate to abruptly narrowly caudate; midvein adaxially slightly impressed; secondary veins 10-13 on each side of midvein. Rachis of inflorescences glabrous, without waxy scalelike trichomes. Infructescence rachis 1.5-3 mm thick. Cupule ellipsoid to subglobose when mature, 2-2.2 cm in diam., outside grayish to yellowish brown puberulent, basally often shortly stalked, wall ca. 1 mm thick; bracts spinelike, 4-6 mm, few of them connate into bundles, others transversely united to 4 or 5 cristate rings. Nut 1 per cupule, broadly conical, glabrescent; scar basal, 9-12 mm in diam. Fl. Jun-Sep, fr. Jun-Nov of following year.

* Broad-leaved evergreen forests; 600-1000 m. NE Guizhou, W Hubei, NW Hunan, E Sichuan