Shrubs procumbent; trunk creeping, dull brown. Juvenile branchlets russet, pilose. Buds ovoid, small, glabrous. Petiole 2-4 mm, pilose; leaf blade obovate, rarely elliptic, 0.5-1.5 cm × 2-7 mm, abaxially glaucous, sparsely villous, densely pilose when young, adaxially green, glabrous, base narrowly cuneate, margin indistinctly glandular serrate distally or entire, apex subacute. Flowering coetaneous. Catkins terminal, capitate. Male catkin ca. 1 cm, few flowered; rachis pilose; bracts obovate, ca. 1/2 as long as filaments or more, sparsely ciliate, apex rounded. Male flower: glands 2, cylindric, ca. 1/5 as long as bracts; stamens 2; filaments glabrous; anthers oblong. Female catkin bracts abaxially pilose, ciliate, adaxially glabrous. Female flower: adaxial gland ca. as long as stipe; ovary narrowly ovoid, grayish white pilose, shortly stipitate; style short, 2-cleft; stigma 2-lobed.

Similar to Salix brachista but leaf blade villous abaxially, margin serrate or entire, indistinctly glandular; ovary densely grayish white pubescent.

* Mountain slopes, rock crevices; above 3500 m. NW Yunnan