Trees to 20 m tall; branchlets of current year and rachis of inflorescences densely tawny puberulent and with scurfy scalelike trichomes. Petiole 1-2 cm; leaf blade ovate, oblong, or rarely lanceolate, (6-)8-15 × (1.5-)2.5-5.5 cm, rigidly leathery, abaxially densely covered with lax yellowish brown to reddish brown, scurfy scalelike trichomes, adaxially glabrous, base broadly cuneate and sometimes asymmetric, margin entire, apex acuminate to acute; secondary veins 9-13 on each side of midvein; tertiary veins abaxially not visible. Male inflorescences solitary in axils of leaves or in paniculate clusters, usually androgynous. Female inflorescences in clusters of ca. 3. Infructescences less than 5 cm; developed cupules 2-6. Cupule subglobose, 2-2.5 cm in diam., enclosing most of nut, wall 1-1.5 mm thick; bracts imbricate, triangular, puberulent and with rust-colored scalelike trichomes when young, apex subulate and spreading. Nut subglobose but broadest apically, 1.7-1.8 × 1.2-2 cm, densely covered with tawny, appressed minute hairs, wall ca. 1 mm thick; scar covering ca. 1/3 of nut, convex. Fl. Jun-Aug, fr. Aug-Oct of following year.