Trees to 40 m tall; trunk to 2.7 m d.b.h.; bark brownish gray or gray-brown, thick, longitudinally fissured; crown pyramidal; branchlets initially yellowish or reddish brown, turning light brown or dark gray in 2nd or 3rd year, ridged and grooved, brown lanate. Leaves pectinately arranged, linear, rarely narrowly linear-lanceolate, 1-2.4(-3.5) cm × 1.5-3 mm, grooved adaxially, abaxial stomatal bands white, distal margin entire or serrulate, apex obtuse, entire or occasionally emarginate. Seed cones light green, maturing light brown, ovoid or narrowly so, 1.5-3 × 1-2 cm. Seed scales obovate-orbicular, 1-1.4 × 0.7-1.2 cm, base only slightly convex, distal part slightly recurved, very thin, smooth. Bracts cuneate-rhombic, margin denticulate, apex 2-lobed. Seeds obliquely ovoid or narrowly ovoid, 0.8-1.2 cm including wing. Pollination Apr-May, seed maturity Oct-Nov.
Mountain slopes, river basins; at elevations from 2,300-3,500 metres.
Can be grown by seedlings. Seeds needs stratification.