Trees 8-18 m tall. Young branchlets covered with tawny, crisp, short hairs, blackish when dry. Branches of last-year growth densely lenticellate; lenticels visible only under lens. Petiole ca. 1.5 cm; leaf blade ovate, elliptic, or lanceolate, 4-10 × 1.5-3.5 cm, rigidly papery, abaxially at least along midvein densely covered with tawny, early glabrescent, short hairs and with tiny, grayish glandular dots, adaxially reddish brown to dark brown when dry, base decurrent on petiole, margin entire or rarely ± undulate near apex, apex narrowly acuminate to caudate; secondary veins 6-8 on each side of midvein, abruptly curving apically near margin but not fusing; tertiary veins abaxially not visible or very slender, evident. Male inflorescences in a panicle, 8-15 cm; rachis densely tawny puberulent. Androgynous inflorescences often with male flowers above middle; cupules in clusters of ca. 3. Cupule globose to ± depressed, 1-1.8 cm in diam., usually almost completely enclosing nut, wall less than 1 mm thick and crustaceous when dry; bracts fused to cupule except for subulate apex ca. 1 mm, triangular, reddish brown when dry. Nut depressed globose to subglobose, 0.8-1.6 cm in diam., glabrous; scar 6-12 mm in diam., concave. Fl. Jul-Oct, fr. Jul-Oct of following year.

* Broad-leaved evergreen forests; 500-1200 m. Guangdong, Guangxi, SE Yunnan