大苞柳 da bao liu

Shrubs to 2 m tall. Branchlets purplish black or dull colored, stout, with many nodes, glabrous. Petiole short; leaf blade obovate, 3-5 cm, glabrous, abaxially whitish, adaxially dull green, base rounded, margin distinctly serrate, apex acute to acute; lateral veins 8-10 on each side of midvein. Flowering coetaneous. Catkins oblong-cylindric, ca. 3 × 1.2 cm, sessile or very shortly pedunculate, usually with 1-3 leaflets at base; bracts obovate-oblong, ca. 5 mm, submembranous, downy, 5 (-7)-veined, margin sinuolate-nicked, apex rounded-truncate, overlapping surrounding filaments or ovary. Male flower: adaxial gland ovate; stamens 2, ca. 5.5 mm; filaments partly united to nearly completely connate, basally downy; anthers yellow. Female flower: glands 1 or 2, adaxial gland ovate-terete, ca. 1.3 mm, abaxial gland very small or absent; ovary conical, ca. 3.5 mm, golden yellow pubescent, shortly stipitate; style 1.5-1.8 mm, 2-parted to 2-lobed, pubescent proximally; stigma long, cleft. Capsule unknown. Fl. Jun.

* Thickets on mountain slopes; circa 4600 m. SE Gansu, Qinghai, N Sichuan