Trees or shrubs. Branchlets russet or chestnut colored, glabrous, shiny, rarely grayish blue, thick. Buds ovoid-conical, glabrous or slightly pilose, apex acute. Stipules semiovate or broadly lanceolate, margin serrulate; petiole ca. 5 mm; leaf blade lanceolate, ca. 7.5 × 2.5 cm, papery, abaxially pale or slightly grayish blue, adaxially bright green, shiny, base attenuate, margin indistinctly serrulate, apex long acuminate; lateral veins conspicuous and curved abaxially. Male catkin oblong or broadly oblong-ellipsoid, ca. 2.5 cm, thick, sessile, with leaflets at base or not; bracts broadly elliptic-ovate, apex black, obtuse, long pubescent. Male flower: stamens 2; filaments ca. 3 × as long as bracts; anthers nearly yellowish brown, small. Female catkin long terete, ca. 5 cm × 5-8 mm, sessile, with leaflets at base, sparsely flowered; bracts black, lanceolate, subglabrous or pilose at base. Female flower: gland adaxial; ovary narrowly conical, gray sericeous; stipe longer than gland; stigma thick.

W Xizang [Kashmir]