Shrubs procumbent to 3 cm tall; trunk russet, slender. Juvenile branchlets suberect, yellowish brown, densely white villous, glabrescent. Buds broadly ovoid, small, pilose. Petiole ca. 3 mm; leaf blade elliptic or ovate, ca. 1.4 × 0.8 cm, abaxially greenish, densely villous along midvein, or glabrous, adaxially green, sparsely pilose when young, glabrescent, base broadly cuneate, margin entire, rarely indistinctly sparsely glandular serrate, apex acute or obtuse; reticulate veins conspicuously raised abaxially. Flowering coetaneous. Male catkin terminal, cylindric, ca. 1.3 cm × 4 mm; peduncle nearly equal to catkin, with 3-5 leaflets; rachis villous; bracts elliptic, abaxially subglabrous, adaxially sparsely villous and ciliate, apex rounded. Male flower: glands 2, red, thinly cylindric, ca. 1/2 as long as bracts; stamens 2, ca. 2.5 mm, ca. 3 × as long as bracts; filaments villous proximally; anthers yellow, oblong. Female catkin unknown. Fl. May.

Similar to Salix brachista but juvenile branchlets densely pubescent; leaf blade entire; male catkin slender; bracts sparsely villous and ciliate adaxially; glands thinly cylindric; filaments villous proximally.

* Thickets on mountain slopes; circa 3000 m. W Sichuan