Shrubs to 1.2 m tall. Branchlets grayish tomentose when young, glabrescent. Petiole purple, 5-8 mm, pubescent or subglabrous; leaf blade elliptic, ovate, elliptic-ovate, or elliptic-lanceolate, 1-1.5 cm × 4-8 mm, robust, to 2.4 × 1.5 cm on shoots, abaxially gray or slightly pale, sparsely pubescent, glabrescent, adaxially green, sparsely pubescent or glabrous, base rounded or obtuse, margin entire, apex obtuse or acute; reticulate veins prominent abaxially. Male catkin ellipsoid, 1-1.4 × 0.5-1 cm, densely flowered; peduncle short, with 2 or 3 obovate-elliptic leaflets; bracts obovate, villous. Male flower: glands 2, usually basally connate; stamens 2, free; filaments villous proximally; anthers yellow, partly red. Female catkin 1-1.5 × ca. 1 cm; peduncle 3-7 mm, with 2 or 3 leaflets; rachis downy; bracts dull purple, broadly obovate, pilose, ca. as long as ovary. Female flower: glands 2, basally connate, forming false disc, adaxial gland usually 2- or 3-lobed; ovary ovoid, villous, sessile; style 2-cleft; stigma 2-lobed. Fl. Jun, fr. Jul.

* Mountain slopes, thickets; 3000-4300 m. Gansu, Ningxia, Qinghai, Sichuan, E Xizang, ?Yunnan.