Description from
Flora of China
Populus wilsonii f. brevipetiolata C. Wang & S. L. Tung; P. wilsonii f. pedicellata C. Wang & S. L. Tung.
Trees to 25 m tall; trunk to 1.5 m d.b.h.; bark dark grayish brown, slightly furrowed, exfoliating; crown broadly tower-shaped. Branchlets purple or dull brown when young, becoming
grayish brown, terete, coarsely robust, smooth, pilose. Buds russet or purplish brown, ovoid-globose, large, glabrous, slightly viscid. Petiole purple, terete, (4-)6-16 cm, glabrous, apex
slightly angled, sometimes glandular; leaf blade broadly ovate, suborbicular, or broadly ovate-elliptic, 8-20 × 7-15 cm, abaxially tomentose at first, glabrescent, grayish green, adaxially
bluish green, pilose along veins or glabrous at base, base cordate to rounded-truncate, margin glandular crenate, apex obtuse; veins raised abaxially. Male catkin ca. 7 cm. Fruiting
catkin to 15 cm; rachis pubescent. Capsule ovoid, subglabrous, stipitate. Fl. Apr-May, fr. May-Jun.
* Forests; 1300-3400 m. Gansu, Hubei, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan.