Trees small. Branchlets yellowish brown, brown, or dark purple, pilose or glabrous when young. Buds yellowish brown or brown, ovoid. Petiole short; leaf blade long elliptic or elliptic-lanceolate, 3.5-5.5 × 1-2.3 cm, abaxially pilose, adaxially subglabrous or pilose, both surfaces silky when young, margin indistinctly serrate or entire, apex acute or acuminate. Male catkin 2-3 × ca. 1.5 cm; peduncle 3-7 mm, with 2 or 3 leaflets; bracts dark purplish brown, obovate or ovate, ciliate, abaxially long pubescent proximally, adaxially long pubescent, apex rounded. Male flower: gland adaxial, shortly terete, 1/3-1/2 as long as bracts; stamens 2; filaments connate throughout, (4-)5-6 × as long as bracts, basally pilose or glabrous. Female catkin 1.5-2 cm, shortly pedunculate, with 2 leaflets at base; bracts dull brown, long ovate, 2.5-3 mm, long pubescent, abaxially sometimes glabrous distally, apex subrounded or obtuse. Female flower: adaxial gland ovate-oblong, apex sometimes 2-lobed to 2-parted; ovary long conical, 2.5-4 mm, densely pi-

lose, subsessile; style conspicuous, 2-lobed; stigma 2-lobed. Fl. Apr-May, fr. May-Jun.

A. K. Skvortsov believes that this species might be better referred to sect. Helix because of its close resemblance to Salix tenuijulis.

* Along streams, mountain slopes, or cultivated; ca. 3800 m. Xizang.