Shrubs; bark yellowish. Branchlets yellowish brown or russet, tomentulose near buds; 1- and 2-year-old branchlets densely gray tomentose. Buds flattened-ovoid, densely tomentose. Leaves alternate; stipules lanceolate, longer than petiole; petiole 5-10 mm, densely tomentose; leaf blade oblanceolate or lanceolate, usually broadest distally, 6-10 × 1.5-2.5 cm, abaxially pale, tomentulose when young, when mature only veins pilose, adaxially greenish, base cuneate or broadly cuneate, margin glandular serrate, slightly revolute, apex shortly acuminate; veins brownish, raised. Flowering nearly coetaneous. Male catkin 2-3 × 0.8-1 cm, sessile, with 2 or 3 scalelike leaflets at base; bracts purplish red distally, yellowish green proximally, obovate or obovoid, ca. 1.7 mm, villous. Male flower: stamens 2, connate throughout, ca. 3 mm; anthers purplish red, globose, 4-loculed. Female catkin ovoid to shortly terete, 1-2.5 cm × 6-7 mm; bracts dull brown or chestnut colored, obovate or nearly orbicular, white villous. Female flower: gland small, thin; ovary conical, gray tomentose, sessile; style short or absent; stigma entire or 2-lobed. Fl. Apr, fr. May.

* Along rivers; 1000-1300 m. Henan, N Hubei, S Shaanxi (Luochuan Xian), Shandong