Castanopsis kawakamii Hayata

Trees. Branches glabrous; young shoots dark reddish brown, glabrous, sparsely lenticellate; lenticels dark gray. Petiole 1-2.5 cm; leaf blade ovate to lanceolate, 6-12 × 2-5 cm, dark reddish brown when young and remaining so abaxially, leathery with age, base broadly cuneate to rounded and inaequilateral, margin entire or rarely 1-3-toothed near apex, apex caudate; midvein adaxially slightly raised from base to middle but flat to slightly impressed from middle to apex; secondary veins 9-12 on each side of midvein; tertiary veins reticulate, conspicuous. Female inflorescences 5-10 cm; rachis glabrous. Cupule globose, 6-8 cm in diam., splitting into 4(or 5) segments when mature, inside densely dusky tomentulose, wall ca. 3 mm thick; bracts spinelike, connected to radial branched bundles in middle part of cupule or slightly basally, 2-3 cm, sparsely pubescent to nearly glabrous. Nut 1 per cupule, oblate, 1.2-1.5 × 1.7-2 cm, densely orangish brown puberulent; scar covering ca. 1/3(-1/2) of nut. Fl. Mar-Apr, fr. Aug-Oct of following year.

A tropical plant. It grows between 800-1,000 m altitude. Seedlings demand light.

The fruit or nut is edible raw.