Trees to 15 m tall; bark grayish brown, at first grayish green; crown tower-shaped or globose. Branchlets russet, glabrous; 2-year-old branchlets pruinose. Buds glabrous. Stipules absent or, when present, ovate or broadly ovate, rarely obliquely ovoid, to 4-8 mm, dentate; petiole ca. 8 mm; leaf blade lanceolate or oblanceolate, 8-12 × 1-2 cm, glabrous, pubescent when young, abaxially pruinose, adaxially dull green, shiny, base cuneate, margin glandular serrate, apex acuminate. Flowering precocious. Male catkin cylindric, 1.5-3.5 × 1.8-2 cm, sessile; bracts black distally, obovate-oblong, base sometimes with 3 or 4 glands on each side, long pubescent. Male flower: gland adaxial; stamens 2, 7-8.5 mm; filaments glabrous. Female catkin cylindric, 3-4 × 1-1.5 cm, to 5 cm in fruit; bracts as in male catkin. Female flower: adaxial gland ca. 1/2 as long as stipe; ovary green, ovoid-conical, 2-3 mm, glabrous; stipe 1-1.5 mm; style 1-2 mm, shorter than ovary; stigma 2-cleft. Fl. May, fr. Jun.

Woods, mountains, streamsides; 300-600 m. Hebei, Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Nei Mongol [Japan, Korea, Mongolia, Russia].