Shrubs erect, to 2 m tall. Branchlets with many nodes, tortuous, dull purplish red, or pruinose, glabrous. Buds russet, ovoid. Petiole 1-2 mm; leaf blade elliptic, obovate, or ovate to suborbicular, 2-3.4 × 1-1.6 cm, to 1 cm at anthesis, leathery, pilose on both surfaces, rarely subglabrous, abaxially greenish, adaxially green, both surfaces pubescent or subglabrous, or abaxially brown downy, base cuneate to rounded, margin entire, apex acute to rounded. Catkins ellipsoid to oblong-ellipsoid, ca. 1 cm, sessile or shortly pedunculate, with 1 or 2 leaflets or not; bracts brown or brownish purple, elliptic or obovate, ca. 1/2 as long as filaments, abaxially downy or adaxially glabrous, shortly ciliate, apex rounded-truncate or truncate. Male flower: adaxial and abaxial glands sometimes divided; stamens 2; filaments ca. 3 mm, base downy. Female flower: glands 2, sometimes divided, abaxial gland rarely absent; ovary narrowly ovoid, ca. 2 × as long as bracts; densely downy; style short; stigma 4-lobed. Capsule ovoid-conical, ca. 3.2 mm, downy, sessile or shortly stipitate.

Mountain slopes, thickets; 2800-4800 m. SE and W Gansu, Qinghai, W Sichuan, E Xizang, Yunnan [India, Kashmir, Nepal, Pakistan].