Shrubs to 3 m tall. Branchlets dull brown; young branchlets dull brown or purplish brown, short and thick, glabrous or subglabrous. Petiole 4-10 mm, pubescent; leaf blade elliptic or obovate-elliptic, 1.5-4 × 1-2.5 cm, abaxially grayish white, pruinose when young, glabrescent, adaxially dark green, pubescent along midvein, base obtuse or subrounded, margin glandular serrate or entire, apex acute or obtuse; veins conspicuous. Catkins terminal on juvenile branchlets. Male catkin 3-3.5 × ca. 1 cm; peduncle ca. 1 cm, with leaflets; rachis pubescent; bracts oblong, both surfaces sparsely downy and ciliate, apex obtuse or slightly acute. Male flower: adaxial and abaxial glands usually divided; stamens 2, ca. 3 × as long as bracts; filaments basally downy; anthers yellow, ovoid. Female catkin to 2-6 × ca. 1.5 cm in fruit; bracts as in male catkin. Female flower: adaxial gland present, abaxial gland sometimes present. style conspicuous in fruit, 2-cleft; stigma 2-lobed. Capsule glabrous, shortly stipitate; Fl. Jul-Aug, fr. Aug-Sep.

In FRPS, the species described under Salix oreinoma is, in fact, S. opsimantha, and vice versa. The synonym S. faxoniana, given there under both species, belongs only to S. opsimantha. The illustration captioned S. oreinoma on plate 54 in FRPS depicts S. opsimantha.

* Thickets on mountains; 3700-4300 m. W Sichuan, E Xizang, NW Yunnan