Shrubs to 1 m tall; bark brown. Branchlets brown or yellowish brown, slender, glabrous, white or yellowish brown tomentose or villous when young. Buds russet, ovoid, at first tomentose or pubescent, glabrescent, apex obtuse. Stipules when present narrowly lanceolate or lanceolate, caducous; petiole short; leaf blade linear-lanceolate or lanceolate, 2-6 cm × 3-10 mm, abaxially pale, downy or white tomentose, when young silky villous or white or yellowish brown tomentose, adaxially usually dull green, glabrous, base attenuate or rounded, margin entire, apex attenuate or long acuminate; lateral veins 10-12 on each side of midvein. Male catkin 1.5-2 cm, sessile; bracts obovate or obtuse, pilose, apex dull brown. Male flower: stamens 2, distinct, glabrous; anthers yellow or dull red; gland 1. Female catkin subglobose to shortly cylindric, subsessile; bracts as in male catkin. Female flower: gland as in male flower ovary ovoid-conical, villous, long stipitate; style short; stigma entire or lobed. Fl. May, fr. Jun.

Mountain slopes, margins of woods; 300-3200 m. Gansu, Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Nei Mongol, Xinjiang [Kazakhstan, Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Russia, Tajikistan; Europe].