Shrubs. Branchlets pilose when young, glabrescent. Buds brownish red, ovoid. Petiole (3-)6-7 mm, densely downy; leaf blade lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate to narrowly ovate, (3-) 5-6(-8) × 0.6-1.5(-2) cm, abaxially densely white sericeous, shiny, adaxially green to dark green, subglabrous, base cuneate-rounded, margin entire or indistinctly remotely gland tipped, apex acute; lateral veins more than 20 each side of abaxially raised midvein. Flowering coetaneous. Catkins cylindric, 1.5-6 cm (-15) × 4-6 mm; peduncle with 2-5 leaflets; bracts obdeltoid or deltoid-obovate, densely white downy, ciliate, apex truncate. Male flower: adaxial and abaxial glands ovate or oblong-ovate, ca. 1/2 as long as bracts, apex truncate or retuse; stamens 2, free; filaments downy nearly throughout, ca. 2 × as long as bracts; anthers yellow, ellipsoid. Female flower: gland adaxial, oblong-ovate, ca. 1/3 as long as ovary; ovary ovoid, ca. 2 mm, white downy, sessile; style 1/3-1/2 as long as ovary, completely divided or 2-lobed; stigma short, 2-lobed. Capsule densely pubescent. Fl. Apr, fr. Jun.

Similar to Salix wolohoensis but leaf blade sericeous and shiny abaxially; style 2-divided or -parted. Similar also to S. psilostigma but leaf blade acute at apex; petiole short; catkins slender; style shorter, 2-divided; ovary small.

* Valleys, mountain slopes, mixed woods; 1500-2700 m. SW Hubei, S Sichuan, Yunnan