Shrubs to 1.5 m tall. One-year-old branchlets purplish black, glabrous; juvenile branchlets densely gray downy. Buds ovoid, tomentose. Petiole 5-6 mm, tomentose; leaf blade obovate or oblong-obovate, 4-8 × 3-4 cm, abaxially pale, pubescent along midvein, downy, adaxially green, downy, base rounded, broadly cuneate, or cuneate, margin entire, on long shoots remotely crenate distally, apex obtuse-rounded and obliquely apiculate. Flowering coetaneous or serotinous. Male catkin terminal, cylindric, 4-5 cm; peduncle 2-3 cm, gray tomentose, with 3 or 4 leaflets; bracts yellowish brown, oblong or orbicular-obovate, ca. 1/2 as long as ovary, abaxially downy, adaxially subglabrous, apex obtuse-rounded or nearly truncate. Male flower: adaxial gland usually larger than abaxial gland; stamens 2; filaments distinct, 5-6 mm, villous nearly throughout, downy. Female catkin 4-8 × ca. 1 cm. Female flower: ovary ovoid-conical, grayish white tomentose, sessile; style cleft; stigma 2-lobed-cleft. Capsule brown, sparsely tomentose. Fl. Jul, fr. Oct.

* Mountains; 3400-3700 m. NW Yunnan.