Salix eriophylla Andersson

Shrubs, rarely small trees. Branchlets brown, pilose when young, glabrescent. Stipules on shoots obliquely semiovate-lanceolate; petiole ca. 1 cm; leaf blade lanceolate, rarely narrowly elliptic-lanceolate, 4-8 × 1.5-2 cm, to 16 cm on shoots, abaxially white tomentose, adaxially green or dark green, tomentulose to subglabrous, base cuneate or cuneate-rounded, margin entire or indistinctly sparsely glandular serrate, apex acuminate, rarely acute; lateral veins more than 18 each side of abaxially raised midvein. Flowering coetaneous or slightly serotinous. Male catkin cylindric; 4-6 cm × ca. 8 mm; peduncle with 2-5 leaflets; bracts subobovate, both surfaces white downy, margin irregularly dentate, apex subtruncate. Male flower: adaxial and abaxial glands narrowly ovate; stamens 2; filaments distinct, downy nearly throughout, ca. 2 × as long as bracts; anthers yellow. Female catkin 6-8 × 0.8-1 cm. Female flower: gland adaxial; ovary ovoid, grayish white downy; style long, cleft to 2-parted; stigma shortly 2-cleft. Capsule narrowly ovoid, sessile. Fl. May-Jun, fr. Jul-Aug. 2n = 38.

Mountain slopes; 3000-3600 m. Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan [Bhutan, India, Nepal, Sikkim]