Trees 10-15 m tall; bark dull gray, furrowed; crown round. Branchlets slender, pubescent, glabrescent; juvenile branchlets grayish green, brittle. Stipules broadly lanceolate, margin glandular serrate; petiole 2-4 mm, pubescent, glabrescent; leaf blade lanceolate, 3.5-7 cm × 5-12 mm, abaxially pale, adaxially green, pilose when young, when mature both surfaces pubescent or glabrescent along midvein, base cuneate, margin glandular serrulate, apex shortly acuminate or acuminate. Male catkin unknown. Female catkin 1.5-1.8 cm × ca. 7 mm; peduncle short, with 3 leaflets; bracts yellowish green, ovate, abaxially pubescent, adaxially glabrous, apex subacute, with ca. 3 veins. Female flower: gland adaxial; ovary ca. 1 mm, ca. as long as bracts, glabrous, sessile; style short; stigma 2-parted. Capsule yellowish brown, 4-6 mm. Fl. May, fr. Jan.

A. K. Skvortsov postulates that this species may be an individual clone of Salix babylonica.

A fast-growing tree, used for timber and reforestation.

* 100-300 m. Heilongjiang, Liaoning, Nei Mongol; introduced in Hebei, Shaanxi