Abelicea hirta C. K. Schneider; Corchorus serrata Thunberg; Planera acuminata Lindley; P. japonica Miquel; Ulmus keaki Siebold; Zelkova acuminata Planchon; Z. formosana Hayata; Z. hirta C. K. Schneider; Z. keaki Maximowicz; Z. serrata (Thunberg) Makino var. tarokoensis (Hayata) Li; Z. tarokoensis Hayata.

Trees, to 30 m tall, d.b.h. to 1 m, deciduous. Bark grayish white to grayish brown, exfoliating. Branchlets brownish purple to brown, pubescent or glabrescent. Winter buds conic-ovoid to ovoid. Stipules brownish purple, lanceolate, 7-9 mm. Petiole 2-6 mm, pubescent; leaf blade elliptic to ovate-lanceolate, 3-10 × 1.5-5 cm, papery to thickly papery, glabrous or abaxially sparsely pubescent along veins, adaxially sparsely hispid, base slightly oblique, rounded, or shallowly cordate, margin serrate to crenate, apex caudate-acuminate; secondary veins 9-15 on each side of midvein. Male flowers: shortly pedicellate, ca. 3 mm in diam. Perianth (5 or)7(or 8)-parted to middle. Female flowers: subsessile, ca. 1.5 mm in diam. Perianth 4- or 5(or 6)-parted. Ovary pubescent. Drupes pea green, subsessile, 2.5-3.5 mm in diam., surface covered by an irregular network of low ridges. Fl. Apr, fr. Sep-Nov. 2n = 28.

The bark and leaves are used medicinally.

Valleys, beside streams; 500-2000 m. Anhui, Fujian, Gansu (Qin Ling), N Guangdong, Guizhou, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Liaoning (Dalian), Shaanxi (Qin Ling), Shandong, Sichuan, Taiwan, Zhejiang [Japan, Korea, Russia (Kuril Islands)].