Trees, 10-15(-20) m tall. Branchlets densely pubescent when young, glabrescent, purple-brown, longitudinally striped and conspicuously lenticellate. Leaflets 11-19, nearly without petiolules; blades lanceolate or elliptic-oblong, densely pubescent when young, glabrescent, base rounded or broadly cuneate, margin shallowly serrate, apex acuminate, lowest pairs small, ca. 1 cm, often early deciduous, middle pairs 7-12 × 2-4 cm, with lateral veins 10-16 pairs, terminal leaflet 5-7 cm, with petiolule ca. 15 mm. Panicles 14-25(-35) cm, axillary or lateral, usually crowded toward ends of branchlets, multibranched; rachis and branches slender, densely tomentose. Flowers white, ca. 3 mm; receptacle cup-shaped, abaxially tomentose. Sepals nearly subulate, ca. 2 mm, hairy on both surfaces. Petals ovate, ca. 3 mm, abaxially tomentose. Stamens nearly equal. Ovary sessile, globose; style sparsely pubescent; stigma shallowly 5-lobed. Infructescence with many linear pedicels without fruits. Drupe nearly ovoid, one side dilated, 7-10 × 6-8 mm, ± obtusely deltoid in cross section, attenuate at both ends, apex with a point, base with persistent shallowly cupular calyx. Fl. Apr, fr. May-Nov.

[[File:白头树3.jpg|缩略图|left|250px|[http://img1.iplant.cn/gotoimg/236/89D93AE3519D6C65.jpg 原图链接] [http://www.iplant.cn/info/Garuga%20forrestii?t=p 来自植物智]]]

Garuga forrestii W. W. Smith in Not. Bot. Gard. Edinb. 13: 162. 1921; Hand. -Maza. Symb. Sin. 7:631. 1933, Kalkm. in Blumea 7 (2): 461, fig. 2. 1953; 云南植物志1: 461, 图版45: 10-14. 1977; 云南种子植物名录, 上册826. 1984.——G. yunnanensis Hu in Bull. Fan Mem. Inst. Biol. Bot. ser. 7: 212. 1936.