Trees ca. 20 m tall; branchlets and young leaf blades abaxially covered with simple or stellate hairs. Petiole 2.5-3.5 cm, very short when young; leaf blade ovate-elliptic, oblong, or rarely broadly ovate, 12-24 × 5-8 cm, thickly papery, concolorous, base broadly cuneate and often slightly inaequilateral, margin entire or rarely subcrenate from middle to apex, apex caudate; midvein adaxially slightly impressed or rarely flat to slightly raised from base to middle; secondary veins 12-14 on each side of midvein. Infructescences 5-15 cm; rachis 2-3 mm thick. Cupule subglobose, 2-3 cm in diam., wall 1-2 mm thick; bracts spinelike, 3-6 mm, free but usually some in bundles. Nut ellipsoid, 1.2-2 cm, densely rust-colored pubescent; scar basal, 8-10 mm in diam. Fr. Oct-Nov.