Trees to 30 m tall; branchlets, petioles, and rachis of inflorescences densely with grayish to tawny long hairs. Petiole 2-3.5 cm; leaf blade broadly elliptic, ovate, obovate, or obovate-elliptic, 8-15 × 4-8 cm, rigidly leathery, abaxially densely pilose, margin recurved, apex rounded to acute, sometimes shortly cuneate, and often asymmetric; secondary veins 9-13 on each side of midvein, secondary and tertiary veins adaxially impressed; tertiary veins abaxially slender, evident. Male inflorescences in a panicle, densely brown tomentose. Female inflorescences shorter than male, usually terminal at apex of branches, 6-14 cm; cupules in clusters of 3-5. Young cupules completely enclosing nut; bracts linear. Mature cupules plate-shaped, 3-6 mm × 1.5-2.5 cm, wall ± woody; bracts reflexed, tip hooked. Nut subglobose but slightly depressed, 1.8-2.6 × 2-3 cm, white farinose when young, base flat; scar 0.8-1.4 cm in diam., concave. Fl. Jul-Aug, fr. Jul-Aug of following year.

* Mixed mesophytic forests, frequent on gentle dry slopes; below 1000 m. Guangdong, Guangxi, S Guizhou, S Hunan