Shrubs or small trees. Branchlets blackish purple, sparsely downy when young. Buds ovoid, shorter than petiole, rarely pruinose. Petiole ca. 1 cm; leaf blade lanceolate, oblong, or elliptic, 4.5-9 × 1.5-2.5 cm, abaxially densely lead gray sericeous, shiny, adaxially dull green, glabrous or pubescent along veins, when young sparsely downy, base cuneate to rounded, margin entire, rarely indistinctly glandular serrulate, apex acute; lateral veins 11-14(-16) each side of adaxially conspicuous midvein; veins indistinct abaxially. Flowering coetaneous. Male catkin cylindric, 3.5-6 × 0.8-1 cm; peduncle with 2-5 leaflets; bracts yellowish brown, spatulate-oblong, abaxially downy and villous, adaxially glabrous, margin entire, crenate, or 2-cleft, apex obtuse or subtruncate. Male flower: stamens 4-5.5 mm, basally downy; anthers yellow, oblong. Female catkin 4-6(-7) cm × 5-6 mm, more than 10 cm in fruit; bracts as in male catkin. Female flower: gland adaxial, 1/3-1/2 as long as bracts; ovary ovoid, densely downy; style ca. as long as ovary, 2-lobed; stigma purplish red, 2-cleft. Capsule ovoid-conical, pilose or glabrescent, attenuate, sessile or shortly stipitate. Fl. May-Jun, fr. Jul. 2n = 38.

Similar to Salix balfouriana and S. ernestii but leaf blade densely lead gray sericeous, shiny, and indistinctly veined abaxially; style and stigma not twisted.

Thickets on mountain slopes; 3000-4400 m. Xizang [Bhutan, India, Nepal, Sikkim]