Shrubs or trees. Branchlets dull red or russet, gray villous when young, glabrescent. Buds dull brown, large, pilose or abaxially glabrous, apex acute. Petiole 1-1.5 cm, densely pubescent; leaf blade obovate-orbicular, ovate, suborbicular, or elliptic, 3.5-9(-10) × 3-4(-6) cm, leathery, abaxially gray tomentose, glabrous, or sparsely pubescent, adaxially dull green, usually with conspicuous wrinkles, base rounded or cuneate-rounded, margin entire or irregularly dentate, apex shortly acuminate or acute. Flowering precocious. Male catkin ca. 2.5 × 1.6-2 cm, sessile; rachis downy; bracts black distally or nearly throughout, ovate-elliptic, densely villous, apex acuminate. Male flower: gland adaxial; stamens 2; filaments slender, glabrous or sparsely downy at base, 5-6 × as long as bracts; anthers yellow, oblong. Female catkin 2-2.5 × 0.8-1 cm, 7-8 × ca. 2 cm in fruit, shortly pedunculate, with 1-3 scalelike leaflets; bracts as in male catkin. Female flower: gland as in male flower; ovary long conical, gray sericeous; stipe 2-2.5 mm; style ca. 1 mm; stigma (2 or)4-lobed. Capsule to 1 cm. Fl. Apr, fr. May.

Mountain slopes, woods. Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, E Nei Mongol [Korea, E Russia].