Castanopsis tribuloides (Smith) A. de Candolle var. wattii King ex J. D. Hooker, Fl. Brit. India 5: 623. 1888.

Trees 15-20 m tall. Young shoots purplish brown, sparsely pubescent, glabrescent, or glabrous. Petiole 0.8-1.5 cm; leaf blade narrowly ovate, lanceolate, or narrowly oblong, (7-)11-20 × 3-5 cm, firmly papery, base broadly cuneate to acute and oblique, margin apically with 2-5 shallow teeth, apex long acuminate; midvein adaxially impressed; secondary veins 13-19 on each side of midvein. Female inflorescence ca. 20 cm; rachis glabrous. Female flowers 3 per cupule. Cupule subglobose when mature, ca. 3 cm in diam., outside and bracts yellowish gray villous and with red to brownish small lamellate waxy scalelike trichomes, wall 1-1.5 mm thick; bracts spinelike, 5-8 mm, several basally or apically connate into bundles. Nuts (1 or)2 or 3 per cupule, 2-2.5 × 1-1.5 cm, hairy; scar basal, triangular to lenticular, 7-10 mm in diam. Fl. Jul-Sep, fr. Aug-Oct of following year.

Reports in the literature of Castanopsis rufescens J. D. Hooker & Thomson ex A. Camus in China are referable to C. wattii.

Broad-leaved evergreen forests; 900-1700 m. SE Xizang (Mêdog Xian), W Yunnan [NE India, Sikkim]