It is a tree that normally reaches between 3 and 8 m high, although sometimes it can reach 15 m with a very extended crown of irregular shape, generally branched from the base. With pale brown or gray bark and deeply grooved, its wood is hard, flexible and very resistant. The rounded leaves are between 6 and 12 cm long and wide and are smoothly pubescent on both sides, with double serrated edges. The flowers are borne before the leaves, in early spring. They are monoecious and with sex-differentiated aments; the male ones are pale yellow and between 5 and 12 cm long, the female ones are very small and practically hidden in the buds from which the bright red styles arise, in number from 1 to 3.