Stems arching, 1-2.5 m tall; bark grayish brown, sometimes slightly reddish when young, ± papillate-puberulous, ridged or striated when young. Buds red-brown, ovoid. Petiole almost absent; leaf blade membranous; earliest-formed ones elliptic, with reddish brown, scale-like tips; later blades lanceolate, 3-9 × 1.5-2.5 cm, both surfaces sparsely papillate hairy when young, lateral veins 5-12 pairs, inconspicuous, base cuneate or narrowly cuneate, margin entire or very minutely papillate-denticulate. Male inflorescences terminal and axillary. Male flowers: pedicel 3-6 mm; perianth pale yellowish brown, ovoid, 4-4.5 mm in diam.; lobes ovate-oblong, ca. 2 mm, sparsely pubescent. Stamens 4, shorter than lobes. Female flowers usually solitary, terminal; perianth funnelform, 7-8 mm, abaxially puberulous or subglabrous; lobes small, triangular-ovate or ovate, apex acute. Ovary glabrous to puberulous. Style yellow. Drupe ellipsoid or obconic, ca. 15 × 10 mm, glabrous to densely puberulent, longitudinally 8-striate; fruiting pedicel slender, clavate, 8-15 mm; bracts narrowly elliptic, accrescent to ca. 2 × as long as fruit, 3-4 × 0.8-0.9 cm, persistent. Fl. Jun, fr. Sep-Oct.

This species has been confused with the Japanese species Buckleya lanceolata (Siebold & Zuccarini) Miquel, which differs by having bracts longer, ca. 3 × as long as fruit, leaves more markedly caudate, and indumentum dense and often multicellular.

The fruit contains starch. The fresh leaves and bark are poisonous.

* Mixed mesic to deciduous forests; 700-1800 m. Anhui, Gansu, Henan, Hubei, Shanxi, Sichuan, Zhejiang.