Shrubs or trees to 6 m tall; bark greenish gray. Branchlets yellowish green or reddish, slender. Buds oblong, at first pubescent, glabrescent. Stipules lanceolate, small, caducous; petiole 2-10 mm; leaf blade lanceolate, 7-12 × 0.8-1.2 cm, to 14 × 2 cm on shoots, abaxially pruinose, glabrous or sparsely appressed pubescent, adaxially dull green, shiny, glabrous, base broadly cuneate, margin undulate, subentire, slightly revolute, apex acuminate. Flowering precocious. Male catkin cylindric, ca. 3 × 1 cm, sessile; bracts brownish, lanceolate or liguliform, pilose, apex black. Male flower: adaxial gland oblong-linear, 0.6-1.5 mm; stamens 2, distinct, glabrous; anthers golden-yellow. Female catkin cylindric, ca. 2 cm × 6 mm, with leaflets or not; bracts as in male catkin. Female flower: gland ca. as long as stipe; ovary ovoid-conical, 1.5-1.7 mm, downy, shortly stipitate; style 0.2-0.6 mm; stigma yellow, forked. Fl. May, fr. Jun.

A. K. Skvortsov believes that this species is synonymous with Salix sachalinensis.

Grown to protect embankments; used for weaving wicker articles and as a nectariferous plant.

Mountain slopes, along rivers. Heilongjiang, Jilin, Nei Mongol [Korea, Russia]