Shrubs to 6 m tall. Branchlets purplish brown or blackish, villous when young, glabrescent. Petiole 3-5 mm, silky; leaf blade elliptic or ovate, 1.5-2(-2.6) × 0.9-1.5(-1.8) cm, abaxially pale, at first downy, glabrescent, adaxially green, pilose, base rounded, margin entire, apex subacute or subrounded. Male catkin ca. 2.8 cm × 4 mm, densely flowered, subsessile; rachis villous; bracts brownish, obovate or suborbicular, abaxially tomentose, apex obtuse. Male flower: adaxial gland long elliptic, divided or entire, abaxial gland sometimes absent; stamens 2, 3-4 × as long as bracts; filaments pilose at base; anthers yellow, ovoid. Female catkin terete, 2-2.5 cm; peduncle short, with 2 or 3 leaflets; rachis pilose; bracts yellowish brown, oblong, ca. as long as ovary, pilose at base. Female flower: gland adaxial; ovary ovoid-ellipsoid, glabrous, sessile; style 2-lobed; stigma 2-lobed. Capsule shortly stipitate. Fl. May, fr. May-Jun.

* Mountains; 1300-1700 m. NW Hubei, Sichuan