Shrubs to 1 m tall. Juvenile branchlets chestnut-brown, usually tomentulose, glabrescent, shiny. Petiole short; leaf blade long elliptic to lanceolate or oblong-obovate, 2-6 × 0.5-2 cm, abaxially greenish, adaxially green, base cuneate, margin remotely dentate, rarely subentire, apex acute; veins conspicuous abaxially. Flowering coetaneous or serotinous. Male catkin shortly cylindric or cylindric, 1-2 cm × ca. 6 mm; bracts brownish or dull brown, lanceolate or oblong-obovate, long pubescent, apex obtuse. Male flower: gland adaxial; stamens 2; filaments free, glabrous. Fruiting catkin 3-3.5 cm; peduncle tomentose, with leaflets; bracts as in male catkin. Female flower: gland as in male flower; ovary ovoid-conical or long ovoid, tomentulose; stipe ca. 0.5 mm; style ca. as long as stipe; stigma 2-cleft. Capsule brown, tomentulose. Fl. May-Jun, fr. Jun-Jul.

Riverbanks; 1800-2000 m. Xinjiang (Altay Shan) [N Mongolia, Russia]