Shrubs to 1 m tall. Branches spreading; juvenile branchlets yellow or yellowish brown, pilose or glabrous, short and thin. Stipules absent; petiole short; leaf blade oblong or oblong-elliptic to oblong-ovate, rarely oblong-lanceolate, 1-3(-4) × 0.5-1.8 cm, abaxially whitish, glabrous, adaxially yellowish green, rarely dull green, base rounded (subcordate on shoots), margin entire, apex acute or obtuse. Flowering coetaneous. Male catkin 2-4 cm × 5-7 mm; peduncle ca. 1 cm, with 3 leaflets; rachis pilose; bracts brown distally, broadly ovate or suborbicular, glabrous. Male flower: glands (1 or)2, adaxial and abaxial or abaxial gland absent; stamens 2, free; filaments thicker, basally downy; anthers yellow, subglobose. Female catkin slender, 1.5-3 cm × 2-4 mm; peduncle elongated to 2.5 cm in fruit, with 3-5 leaflets; bracts as in male catkin. Female flower: adaxial gland ovate, sometimes divided; ovary ovoid, glabrous, sessile; style short; stigma 2-lobed. Capsule ovoid-oblong, ca. 4 mm. Fl. early May, fr. Jun.

* Near streams, open places, mountain slopes; 900-3000 m. S Gansu, W Sichuan, NW Yunnan.