Shrubs procumbent, to 3 cm tall; trunk creeping, dull brown. Juvenile branchlets slightly erect, dull russet, glabrous. Buds russet, broadly ovoid, glabrous. Leaf blade obovate or obovate-elliptic, 1-1.7 × 0.7-1.2 cm, abaxially pale and pruinose, densely grayish white villous when young, becoming comose or glabrous, adaxially green, glabrous, base obtuse, rarely rounded or cuneate, margin remotely crenate or entire, apex rounded or slightly obtuse, rarely acute. Catkins terminal, capitate, ca. 5 mm in diam.; bracts ovate-oblong, ca. 3 mm, both surfaces glabrous, ciliate, with conspicuous veins, apex rounded. Male flower: glands 2, terete, adaxial gland broader than abaxial gland; stamens 2, free; filaments glabrous, ca. 6 mm; anthers ovoid. Female flower: gland adaxial; ovary ca. 3.5 mm, glabrous, sessile; style conspicuous, 2-lobed; stigma 2-cleft. Fl. Jun, fr. Jul-Sep.

Similar to Salix flabellaris but leaf blade densely villous abaxially when young, becoming pale, pruinose, and comose or glabrous when mature; bracts ciliate; ovary sessile.

* Rock crevices; 3500-4000 m. NW Yunnan