Shrubs 1-3 m tall, deciduous. Bark glaucous or grayish brown, with convex lenticels. Branchlets glabrous or puberulous when young; buds hidden by base of petiole. Petiole 1.2-1.8 cm, yellowish hispidulous, glabrescent; leaf blade broadly ovate-elliptic, ovate, or obovate, 11-26 × 8-16 cm, both surfaces shiny, abaxially brown hispidulous but glabrescent, adaxially scabrous and glabrous, base broadly cuneate and slightly asymmetric, margin entire or irregularly serrulate, apex acute. Flowers terminal, solitary, 4.5-7 cm in diam. Pedicel 2-4.5 cm; bracteoles 5-7, deciduous, scarred on pedicels after dropping. Tepals distinctly dimorphic; outer tepals 10-14, white flushed slightly pink toward margin, obovate to obovate-spatulate, 1.4-3.6 × 1.2-2.6 cm, apex rounded; inner tepals 7-16, pale yellow becoming white toward base, elliptic, erect, 11-17 × 9-13 mm, apex rounded and incurved. Stamens 16-19, ca. 8 mm; anthers pubescent; connective apex acute; staminodes 11 or 12, puberulous. Carpels 11 or 12, with silky hair. Pseudocarp campanulate, 3-4.5 × 1.5-3 cm, pubescent, apex slightly constricted, apical appendages 14-16 and lanceolate-conical. Achenes oblong, 10-12 × 5-8 mm, with silky trichomes. Fl. May, fr. Oct. 2n = 22*.
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