Castanopsis argentea is an evergreen tree native to Indonesia, where it is known as sarangan. It is mostly found in undisturbed forests of West Java around Mount Gede and Mount Halimun, with a density of ca. 12 trees/hectare. It also occurs in national parks, nature reserves and at high altitude forests in other areas of Java. It is almost extinct from lowland areas in Sumatra, due to the clearance of the land for palm oil plantations.