Plants trees 10-25 m tall, unarmed; bark grey when mature, purplish brown and initially pubescent on young shoots. Leaves petiolate; petioles 2-3.5 cm long, dorsally grooved, pubescent; blades ovate to broadly ovate or somewhat deltoid, 6-15 cm long, 4.5-15 cm wide, with 4-6 pairs of secondary veins, bases oblique, truncate, or shallowly to deeply cordate, margins entire or palmately lobed, surfaces initially pubescent becoming glabrous with age but lower surfaces with persistent tufts of hairs at the junction of the veins and veinlets, blade and lobe tips acuminate. Inflorescences pairs of pedunculate cymes; peduncles pubescent, becoming glabrous. Flowers bracteate and pedicellate; bracts 3-7 mm long; pedicels 5-6 mm long, pubescent; calyces funnel-shaped, 10-toothed, about 2.5 mm long, persistent in fruit; petals 6,linear-oblong, 9-10 mm long, 1-1.5 mm wide, inner surfaces villous at the base, deciduous in fruit; stamens 6, free; anthers 8-9 mm long,filamtns very short, villous at the base; ovaries globose, about 1.5 mm long, pubreulent; styles singe, terminal about 8 mm long, clavate, pilose; stigmas obscurely 2-3-lobed. Drupes elliptic-ovoid, 7-9 mm long, 4-6 mm in diameter, bases and tops truncate, pubescent becoming glabrous with age, somewhat ribbed, dark purple.
Alngium chinense is native to southern Asia but has long been cultivated elsewhere both for its ornamental and medicinal value.