A tree 60 to 70 ft high of spreading habit, with slender, glabrous or nearly glabrous young shoots, often becoming more or less corky-winged. Leaves oblong, often inclined to obovate, 2 to 31⁄2 in. long, slender-pointed, very unequal at the base, doubly toothed, with about twenty pairs of veins, glabrous and glossy above, downy on the veins beneath; stalks about 1⁄4 in. long. Flowers in pendulous racemes 11⁄4 in. long, opening in September. Samaras 1⁄2 in. long, oblong-elliptical, deeply divided at the apex, fringed along the margins with silvery white hairs; they are ripe in November.
A native of the USA, where it is rare and local in Georgia and Alabama, north to south Kentucky and south Illinois, usually on limestone. From the other autumn-flowering American species, U. crassifolia, it differs in its racemose inflorescence and in having the perianth divided to the base. It has been planted to some extent as a shade-tree in Georgia and Alabama, but is of no economic importance.