Shrubs low, to 50 cm tall. Branches erect or ascending, stout; young branchlets brown, blackish when dried; juvenile branchlets white pubescent, glabrescent. Petiole to 1.5 cm, pubescent; leaf blade obovate-elliptic, 2-5(-8) × 1.5-2.5(-3.5) cm, abaxially light green, at first young grayish white downy, glabrescent, adaxially dull green, glabrous, base cuneate, rarely obtuse-rounded, margin remotely crenate, apex obtuse-rounded. Flowering coetaneous. Catkins terminal. Male catkin 2-4 cm; rachis pubescent; bracts obovate-oblong, ca. 1/2 as long as stamens, densely pubescent, margin slightly irregularly dentate or densely dentate, apex subtruncate. Male flower: glands adaxial and abaxial; stamens 2, 5-6 mm; filaments downy for 3/4 to full length. Female catkin ca. 3.5 cm, to 11 cm in fruit; bracts obovate-oblong, sparsely pubescent, abaxially with denser hairs, apex retuse. Female flower: gland adaxial; ovary grayish white pubescent; style conspicuous, entire or 2-lobed; stigma 1, 2-cleft or 2. Fl. Jul-Aug, fr. Aug.

* Among shrubs on mountain slopes, thickets; 3400-4100 m. E Xizang, NW Yunnan.