Shrubs cushion-shaped, creeping; trunk dull brown. Young branchlets russet, glabrous or subglabrous. Buds small, glabrous. Leaves very small, crowded, covering branchlets; petiole 1-2 mm; leaf blade ovate or ovate-elliptic, elliptic, or oblong, usually 2-4 × 1-2 mm, abaxially greenish, at first pilose, glabrescent, adaxially green, glabrous, base broadly cuneate or subrounded, margin entire, rarely remotely dentate distally, apex obtuse or acute; midvein conspicuously raised abaxially, impressed adaxially. Flowering coetaneous. Catkins terminal. Male catkin capitate, ca. 6 mm; bracts elliptic, adaxially sparsely pubescent. Male flower: adaxial and abaxial glands cylindric, sometimes divided, ca. 1/3 as long as bracts; stamens 2; filaments glabrous or pilose at base; anthers ovoid. Female catkin bracts yellow, obovate, ca. 2 mm, apex rounded, or retuse. Female flower: gland adaxial, terete, nearly as long as stipe; ovary long ovoid, glabrous, shortly stipitate; style conspicuous, 2-cleft; stigma 2-lobed. Capsule ovoid, glabrous. Fl. Jun, fr. Jul-Aug.

* Thickets, rocks; 4200-4700 m. W Sichuan, Xizang, NW Yunnan