Shrubs cushion-shaped, creeping, much branched. Branches dull purple or dull brown; juvenile branchlets grayish white hispid, glabrescent. Petiole very short; leaf blade obovate or elliptic, ca. 10 cm × 5 mm, abaxially greenish, sparsely long pubescent along veins, densely pubescent when young, adaxially green, subglabrous, base obtuse, margin entire or crenate distally, apex obtuse or acute. Flowering coetaneous. Catkins terminal. Male catkin ca. 10 × 7 mm; rachis densely pubescent; bracts narrowly ovate or suboblong-elliptic, abaxially with long hairs, ciliate, adaxially glabrous, apex subtruncate, rounded, or irregularly nicked. Male flower: adaxial gland usually broad and short, abaxial gland sometimes 2-cleft, 1/3-1/2 as long as ovary; stamens 2, distinct, basally villous. Female flower: adaxial gland linear, ca. 3 × as long as stipe; ovary glabrous, shortly stipitate; style very short, 2-cleft; stigma 2-lobed. Fl. Jun-Jul, fr. Aug-Sep.

* Mountain slopes; 4000-4200 m. E Xizang, NW Yunnan