Trees to 30 m tall, suckering freely; crown broad. Branchlets at first white tomentose; shoots grayish green or brownish, terete, densely white tomentose. Buds russet, ovoid, 4-5 mm, densely white tomentose, glabrescent, shiny. Leaves of short branchlets with petiole slightly flattened, ca. as long as leaf blade; leaf blade ovate-orbicular or elliptic-ovate, 4-8 × 2-5 cm, both surfaces tomentose. Leaves of sprouts and long shoots ovate-orbicular, middle lobe much larger than lateral ones, 4-10 × 3-8 cm, adaxially white tomentose at first, somewhat glabrescent, base broadly cuneate, rounded, truncate, or subcordate, palmately 3-5-lobed; margin irregularly notched; lateral lobes spreading nearly obtusely, entire or notched-lobed. Male catkin 3-6 cm. Male flower: stamens 8-10. Female catkin 5-10 cm. Female flower: stipe short; stigma 2-lobed. Capsule narrowly conical, ca. 5 mm, glabrous, 2-valved. Fl. Apr-May, fr. May.

Native in Xinjiang; planted in Gansu, Hebei, Henan, Liaoning, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanxi, Xinjiang [N Africa, SW and WC Asia, Europe].