Trees to 15 m tall, deciduous. Bark reddish brown, smooth. Current year branchlets purplish red, glabrous; winter buds ovoid, compressed, ca. 12 × 6 mm, with 4 or 5 scales, apically sericeous. Petiole 1-2 cm, pubescent; leaf blade oblong-elliptic to ovate-elliptic, 9-13 × 4.5-6.5 cm, thinly leathery, abaxially yellowish green and appressed pubescent, adaxially green and glabrous, secondary veins 8-12 on each side of midvein, base broadly cuneate to subrounded, margin serrate, apex acute. Flowers solitary. Pedicel 5-10 mm, pubescent or glabrescent; bracteoles reniform, 5-6 × 7-10(-14) mm, outside sericeous. Sepals obovate to suborbicular, 6-12 × 8-10 mm, outside yellowish sericeous-villous, inside sericeous, margin glandular serrate, apex rounded. Petals white, obovate, 2.5-4 cm, outside sericeous, basally connate. Stamens numerous, unequal, 1.5-2 cm; filaments basally connate. Ovary pubescent or glabrescent; style 5-8 mm, apically 5-lobed. Capsule ovoid, 2-2.5 × 1.5-2 cm. Seeds 7-10 mm, winged. Fl. May-Jun, fr. Oct-Nov.