Shrubs cushion-shaped, to 3 cm tall; trunk dull brown, short, much branched. Juvenile branchlets slightly erect, russet, glabrous. Leaf blade oblong to obovate, 5-7 × 2-3 mm, to 8 mm on shoots, adaxially greenish, glabrous, base cuneate, margin with 3-5(-7) coarse teeth (teeth lobulelike distally, entire proximally), apex acute, shortly acuminate, obtuse, or rounded-truncate and 3-5-dentate; midvein raised adaxially. Flowering coetaneous. Catkins terminal, capitate, few flowered; bracts narrowly elongate, glabrous or pilose, margin rarely irregularly dentate, apex acute, obtuse, or subrounded. Male flower: adaxial gland larger than abaxial gland; stamens 2; filaments glabrous, ca. 3 × as long as bracts; anthers globose. Female flower: adaxial gland ca. as long as stipe; ovary glabrous, shortly stipitate or sessile; style cleft; stigma 2-lobed. Fl. Jul, fr. Aug.

Rocks, mountain meadows; 4000-4600 m. Xizang, NW Yunnan [Bhutan, India, Nepal, Sikkim].