Shrubs. Branchlets dark brown, tomentose when young, glabrescent. Buds yellowish brown, ovoid, glabrous. Stipules caducous; petiole ca. 8 mm, pilose; leaf blade elliptic, elliptic-lanceolate, ovate-lanceolate, or oblong-oblanceolate, 6-8.5 × 1.5-2 cm, abaxially glaucous, densely sericeous when young, glabrescent, adaxially dull green, at first pilose, glabrescent, base cuneate or broadly cuneate, margin serrulate, apex shortly acuminate or acute, rarely acuminate. Male catkin 2.4-2.7 cm; peduncle 5-6 mm; rachis tomentose; bracts brownish, ovate-lanceolate or ovate-oblong, ca. 2.5 mm, both surfaces pilose, apex obtuse. Male flower: glands adaxial and abaxial; stamens 2, free; filaments ca. 4 mm, basally downy. Female catkin cylindric, slender, 3-4 cm × ca. 8 mm, loosely flowered; peduncle (2.5-)3-4 cm, with 3-5 leaflets; bracts brownish, deltoid-lanceolate, 1.5-2 mm, abaxially subglabrous or pilose at base, ciliate, adaxially pubescent, apex acute. Female flower: adaxial gland broadly ovate or obtuse, abaxial gland small; ovary 2.5-3 mm, glabrous; stipe ca. 0.5 mm; style and stigma short. Capsule ovoid-ellipsoid. Fl. Apr-May, fr. May-Jun.

* Along rivers; 1500-2500 m. Henan, Hubei, Jiangxi