Shrubs to 6 m tall. Branchlets yellowish brown, sparsely villous when young, glabrescent. Buds yellowish red, oblong, usually longer than petiole, glabrous or subglabrous. Petiole 1-3 mm, pilose; leaf blade lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, 1.4-4(-5) × 0.5-1.2(-2) cm, abaxially glaucous, adaxially dull green, base rounded or broadly cuneate, margin entire, apex acute or acuminate. Male catkin unknown. Female catkin cylindric, 2.5-3 cm × ca. 6 mm, densely flowered; peduncle conspicuous, with 4 leaflets often deciduous in fruit; rachis villous; bracts brown, obovate-oblong or obovate, glabrous. Female flower: adaxial gland ovate-oblong; ovary ovoid-cylindric, glabrous, subsessile; style very short; stigma lobed. Capsule oblong, ca. 4 mm. Fl. Apr-May, fr. Jun.

* Thickets on mountain slopes and ridges; 1600-2000 m. Gansu, Sichuan (Baoxing Xian, Guan Xian)