Trees to 15 m tall. Branches glabrous. Petiole 2-3 cm, stout, sometimes white farinose; leaf blade ovate-elliptic, oblong, or rarely obovate-elliptic, 15-25 × 4-9 cm, thickly leathery, abaxially tawny to reddish brown scurfy when young, adaxially dark brown to reddish brown, glabrous, and often glossy, base broadly cuneate and decurrent on petiole, margin entire, apex acuminate to shortly acute; secondary veins 8-13 on each side of midvein; tertiary veins abaxially not visible or very slender, evident. Male inflorescences solitary in axils of leaves or in a panicle, to 20 cm; rachis sparsely tawny pubescent. Androgynous inflorescences 7-13 cm, with a few male flowers at apex. Female inflorescence with cupules in clusters of ca. 3. Infructescences 6-10 cm; rachis 6-8 mm thick, lenticellate. Cupule globose to depressed globose, 2-2.8 cm in diam., enclosing most of nut, outside grayish scurfy, wall 1.5-2.5 mm thick; basal bracts obscure, sometimes united into concentric rings but with a subulate tip, apical ones triangular, appressed. Nut depressed globose to broadly conical, 1.2-2 × 1.4-2.4 cm, covered with tawny minute hairs; scar covering ca. 1/3 of nut, convex. Fl. May-Jun, fr. Oct-Nov of following year.

* Mixed mesophytic forests; 700-1600 m. S Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, S Hunan, S Jiangxi