Trees to 25 m tall, suckering freely; trunk to 60 cm d.b.h.; bark grayish green or grayish white, smooth, but rough on basal part of old trunk; crown globose. Branchlets reddish brown, terete; sprouts pubescent. Buds ovoid or ovoid-globose, glabrous, slightly viscid. Petiole laterally flattened; leaf blade deltoid-ovate-orbicular or suborbicular, 3-6 cm, larger and deltoid-ovate-orbicular on sprouts, reddish when very young, abaxially pilose, base rounded, truncate, or shallowly cordate, margin with dense, sinuolate teeth, apex acute or shortly acuminate. Male catkin 5-9 cm. Male flower: stamens 5-12. Female catkin 4-7 cm, ca. 12 cm in fruit. Female flower: ovary conical; stigma red, 2-parted. Capsule ovoid-conical, ca. 5 mm, 2-valved, shortly stipitate. Fl. Mar-Apr, fr. Apr-May. 2n = 38*, 44.

Mountains; 100-3800 m. Anhui, Gansu, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Jilin, Liaoning, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan [Korea, Mongolia, E Russia].