Trees, deciduous, 6-20 m tall; bark gray, smooth; branches rather stout, weakly flattened to terete, glabrous to puberulent. Leaves often crowded at ends of branches; petiole 2.5-9 cm, puberulent or pilosulous to glabrescent; blade drying papery or thinly leathery, ovate, obovate, elliptic, or elliptic-oblong, 10-26 × 7-15 cm, glabrous to glabrescent on both surfaces or sometimes pilosulous abaxially, base acute to obtuse, margins entire or rarely serrate or lobed in distal part, apex acute to acuminate or rarely rounded; secondary veins 7-11 pairs, usually with pilosulous domatia; stipules ovate-oblong or triangular, 5-20 mm, densely pilosulous to glabrescent, acute to obtuse or bilobed for up to 1/2. Inflorescences axillary, simple, densely racemiform to spiciform, 10-30 cm, pilosulous to hirtellous, often pendulous; peduncle 3-5 cm; basal bracts 1 or 2, with blade leathery, ovate to elliptic-oblong or narrowly elliptic, 4-8.5 × 2-3 cm, pilosulous to glabrescent, on stipes 3-5.5 cm; pedicels 0.5-2 mm. Calyx densely puberulent; ovary portion ellipsoid, 1.2-1.5 mm; limb lobed essentially to base; lobes triangular to elliptic, 1-1.5 mm, ciliolate, acute. Corolla yellow to red, densely puberulent to glabrescent outside; tube ca. 2 mm, slender and cylindrical in basal portion then abruptly inflated just below lobes; lobes ligulate to lanceolate or ovate, 2-3.5 mm, obtuse to acute. Style exserted for 2-5 mm. Fruiting pedicels to 8 mm, reflexed. Capsules dark brown, 1.2-1.5 × 0.5-0.8 cm, woody, with several prominent whitened, ellipsoid lenticels; seeds (including wing) ca. 10 × 5 mm. Fl. May-Jul, fr. Aug-Dec.