Castanopsis fulva is commonly known as berangan padi in Iban ethnic. This species can grow up to 25 m tall and a bole diameter of 50 cm. The bark is smooth or slightly fissured while the inner bark is granular and red-brown in colour. The sapwood is creamy yellow in colour. Other than that, it has velvety hairy or sometimes glabrescent (less hair) and finely fissured twigs. The thick-coriaceous leaves have a few different shapes which include elliptic, ovate and oblong. Both male and female flowers are arranged in clusters of 3 along the rachis. The male flowers have acute perianth lobes while the female flowers have obtuse perianth lobes. There are 3 seeds in each subglobose (nearly globe-shaped) cupule but only 1 is well-developed. The shape of the seed is ovoid-conical with thin wall (Soepadmo & Saw, 2000).

Castanopsis fulva can be found in the primary hill mixed dipterocarp and kerangas forests at elevations up to 1100 m. Sumatra, Peninsular Malaysia and Borneo are all home to this species. In Sabah, it is recorded from Beaufort and Ranau districts. In Sarawak, it is common and widely distributed (Soepadmo & Saw, 2000).