Carpinus firmifolia (H. J. P. Winkl.) Hu

Trees to 10 m tall; bark dark gray. Branchlets black-gray, slender, densely yellow-brown villous when young, becoming sparsely pilose. Petiole ca. 5 mm, densely villous; leaf blade ovate, ovate-elliptic, or ovate-oblong, 2.7-5 × 1.5-2(-3.5) cm, leathery, abaxially sericeous-villous along veins, bearded in axils of lateral veins, adaxially villous along midvein, base subcordate or subrounded, margin regularly and doubly minutely serrate, apex acuminate; lateral veins 11 or 12 on each side of midvein, raised abaxially, impressed adaxially. Female inflorescence 4-5 × 1.5-2 cm; peduncle short, ca. 2 mm, densely villous; bracts semiovate, 1.4-1.6 cm × 5-6 mm, sparsely villous, outer margin irregularly dentate, without basal lobe, inner margin entire, with inflexed basal auricle, apex acute; veins 5, reticulate veins prominent. Nutlet broadly ovoid, ca. 4 × 3 mm, glabrous except sparsely villous at apex, prominently ribbed. Fl. May-Jul, fr. Jul-Sep.

C Guizhou (Guiyang Shi)

* Forests on limestone mountain slopes; 1500-1600 m.

Carpinus turczaninowii Hance var. firmifolia H. Winkler in Engler, Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 50(Suppl.): 505. 1914; C. pubescens Burkill var. bigiehensis Hu; C. pubescens var. firmifolia (H. Winkler) Hu ex P. C. Li.