Shrubs to 1.5 m tall. Branchlets reddish or reddish black, slightly thick, shiny, pilose when young, glabrescent. Buds russet, ovoid-conical, shiny. Petiole red, 5-8 mm; leaf blade elliptic or obovate-elliptic, 3-5 × 1-2 cm, abaxially greenish, adaxially green, glabrous, clustered villous along midvein when young, base broadly cuneate or obtuse, margin entire or indistinctly glandular serrate distally, apex acute or obtuse; lateral veins 5-7 on each side of midvein. Flowering coetaneous. Male catkin unknown. Female catkin 2-4.5 cm × 5-7 mm, densely flowered; peduncle ca. 1 cm, with 2 or 3 leaflets; bracts brownish distally, ovate, ca. 1/2 as long as ovary, abaxially villous, adaxially glabrous, ciliate. Female flower: adaxial gland ovate or suborbicular, abaxial gland occasionally present, small; ovary conical, glabrous, shortly stipitate or sessile; style slightly elongate, usually forked at obtuse angle; stigma 2-cleft. Capsule unknown. Fl. May-Jun.

Similar to Salix delavayana but young leaf blade densely villous on midvein abaxially; bracts villous abaxially and at margin; style obtusely forked.

* Mountain slopes; circa 2800 m. NW Sichuan