Trees to 12 m tall; bark gray, furrowed. Branchlets reddish brown or yellowish brown, terete, slender, glabrous. Leaves of short branchlets with petiole terete, 2-4 cm, pilose at first, glabrescent; leaf blade broadly ovate or ovate, 4-7 × 2.5-5 cm, abaxially grayish white and smooth, adaxially green, pilose along veins, base rounded, margin shallowly crenate, entire near base, apex long caudate or acuminate; veins 3, adaxially raised, lateral veins curved at base. Fruiting catkin to 15 cm; rachis glabrous. Capsule long ovoid, ca. 5 mm, 2-valved. Fl. Mar, fr. Apr.

Similar to Populus cathayana but leaf veins pilose, lateral veins curved at leaf base; capsule 2-valved. Similar also to P. simonii but leaf blade broadest below middle, base rounded; fruiting catkin longer.

* Along streams; 1800-3000 m. Sichuan