Trees ca. 12 m tall, deciduous; bark dark brown. Branchlets terete, slender, striate, with elliptic white lenticels, leaf scars prominent, white puberulent when young, glabrescent. Petiole 2-5 cm, puberulent; leaf blade ovate to obovate, 5-9 X 4-6.5 cm, papery, abaxially grayish green, sparsely puberulent, and densely glandular, adaxially glabrous, base cuneate to broadly cuneate and oblique, margin entire, apex obtuse to acuminate, veins 3 or 4 pairs. Inflorescences terminal; peduncle densely grayish puberulent; bracts persistent, with petioles ca. 5 mm, blade rounded to broadly ovate, 1-2 X 1-1.5 cm, outside densely puberulent and glandular, inside sparsely puberulent. CalyX unequally 4- or 5-dentate, outside sparsely puberulent, inside glabrous in fruit. Ovary ovoid, glabrous. Fruit black when dry, obovoid, 1-1.5 cm in diam., shorter than persistent calyx.

Described from fruiting material. Allied to Gmelina delavayana but differs in having bracts and bractlets persistent, broadly ovate to rounded, and densely puberulent and calyces much longer than fruit. Gmelina hainanensis can have a similar calyx to G. szechwanensis, and these species need further study.

* Mixed forests on mountain slopes and along streams; 1200-3000 m. SW Sichuan