Tree to 20-30 m tall with erect branches but generally much smaller. Bark grey to orange, peeling in scales. Branches slightly bent at the tips. Leaves oval to oblong, 4-8 cm long (occasionally to 12 cm), 3-5 cm wide, with a long-pointed tip, rough, teeth pointed, veins in 8-14 pairs; colouring reddish-orange to deep red in autumn. Leaf stalk 2-5 mm long, reddish. Fruit about 4 mm wide.

Japan

Orange-grey patterned and scaling bark; leaf teeth with a short bristle; fruits dry and wingless.

ACT: SW Telopea Park; Woden (Shopping Square). NSW: Albury (Albury Botanic Gardens); Sydney (Domain near Levy Fountain). VIC: Kew (Methodists Ladies' College in drive to residence); Dandenongs ('Pirianda' about 13 m in 1984); Parkville (The University of Melbourne Swanston Street entrance); Prahran (Commercial Road outside Alfred Hospital); Melbourne (Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria (Melbourne Gardens), Hopetoun Lawn, also opposite the Directors Residence entrance is a tree over 100 years old, specimens in the National Herbarium of Victoria were collected in 1893 and 1927).

Source: Spencer, R. (1997). Ulmaceae. In: Spencer, R.. Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 2. Flowering plants. Dicotyledons. Part 1. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.