A tree up to about 100 ft high. Leaves ovate to rhomboidal, the base tapered rounded or slightly heart-shaped, the apex pointed, 2 to 4 in. long, 1 to 21⁄4 in. wide, silky hairy on the veins beneath, margins wavy, edged with fine hairs, veins in seven to eleven pairs; leaf-stalk 1⁄4 to 3⁄8 in. long. Husks about 5⁄8 in. long, furnished with long bristles, those near the base enlarged into linear or spathulate appendages; peduncles stout, thick, somewhat downy, about 1⁄2 in. long.
Native of Japan, where it forms considerable forests. The tree itself and its timber are similar in most respects to the common beech. Botanically it differs chiefly in the leaflike appendages attached to the base of the husk; the latter is also more truncate at the base than in F. sylvatica. F. crenata is also closely allied to F. orientalis (q.v. for the marks of difference).
F. crenata is not common in cultivation but two trees at Kew are referred to it. One, pl. 1910, is 34 × 21⁄2 ft and the other, pl. 1921, 30 × 2 ft (1969).