This species is closely allied to U. carpinifolia, from which it differs in the young branchlets and the leaves being densely downy. The leaves are elliptic-ovate, more bluntly toothed than in U. carpinifolia, with twelve to sixteen pairs of veins. It is a native of the eastern and central Mediterranean region as far west as Italy, first distinguished by Dr Melville in Kew Bulletin, Vol. 12 (1957), pp. 499-502.
It is possible that some trees in Italy and southeast Europe, identified as U. procera, belong to this species.