Trees to 40 m tall; trunk to 1.7 m d.b.h.; bark grayish black, shallowly furrowed. Juvenile branchlets dark green; older branchlets brown to gray. Buds ovoid or narrowly ovoid, yellow-green, canescent or glabrous, brown at margin. Petiole 3-6 cm, laterally flattened, apex with 2 glands or eglandular; leaf blade ovate, narrowly ovate, or broadly ovate 7-13.5 × 5.5-10.5 cm, abaxially glaucous, pilose or glabrous along veins, adaxially grayish green, base rounded, truncate, or broadly cuneate, margin with loose, glandular saw teeth, apex acuminate to acute. Long shoots densely pubescent; petiole 2-3 cm, laterally flattened, apex with 2 glands; leaf blade broadly ovate, 9-13 × 6.5-10.5 cm, abaxially densely pubescent along veins, base truncate or subcordate, margin coarsely glandular dentate, apex shortly acuminate. Female catkin ca. 8 cm; rachis pilose; bracts subulate. Female flower: disc cupular, irregularly serrate; ovary ovoid, with 4 ovules; stigma reddish, cristate. Capsule 2-valved. Fl. Jan.