Trees or shrubs. One-year-old branchlets grayish chestnut colored, subglabrous or pubescent; juvenile branchlets pubescent. Buds brown, ovate-oblong, pilose, apex obtuse. Stipules ovate-lanceolate, small, caducous; petiole 4-7 mm, pubescent; leaf blade ovate-lanceolate or ovate-oblong, (1.8-)3.5-4.6 × 1.2-1.5 cm, abaxially whitish or pubescent along midvein, adaxially green, glabrous, base subrounded or rounded-cuneate, margin glandular serrate, apex acute. Male catkin unknown. Female catkin cylindric, 1.8-2.6 cm × 7-8 mm in fruit; peduncle 1-1.2 cm, with 2 or 3 leaflets; bracts dull brown, subrectangular both surfaces, downy, base subtruncate, or rounded-truncate, margin glandular dentate. Female flower: abaxial gland cylindric or absent, adaxial gland forked; ovary ovoid-conical, 2-2.4 mm, villous, very shortly stipitate; style forked; stigma 2-cleft. Capsule 2-3.5 mm, villous. Fl. Jul, fr. Aug.

* Along rivers; 2500-3100 m. Gansu, Qinghai.