Shrubs to 4 m tall. Branchlets green or yellowish green, rarely reddish, glabrous. Bud dull red or russet, large, glabrous. Stipules ovate-lanceolate, ca. as long as petiole, margin dentate; petiole 5-8 mm, glabrous; leaf blade lanceolate, 5-10 × 0.8-1.7 cm, abaxially pale, glabrous, adaxially dull green, glabrous, sparsely long pubescent when young, base cuneate, margin glandular serrate, apex acuminate. Flowering precocious. Male catkin sessile, cylindric, 2-4 × 1-1.3 cm; bracts yellowish green proximally, nearly black distally, yellowish green proximally, obovate or broadly obovate, ca. 1.5 mm, long pubescent, apex rounded. Male flower: gland adaxial; stamens 2; filaments distinct, ca. 4 mm, slender, glabrous; anthers yellow, subglobose. Female catkin cylindric, 4-5 × 0.6-1 cm; bracts dull brown or black, obovate or elliptic, ca. 3 × as long as stipe, densely long pubescent, apex acute or obtuse. Female flower: adaxial gland ca. 1/2 as long as stipe; ovary ovoid-conical, ca. 3.5 mm, pilose; stipe 1-1.5 mm; style 1.5-1.7 mm, glabrous; stigma 2-cleft. Fl. May, fr. Jun.

Similar to Salix kangensis but buds, stipules, petioles, and abaxial leaf surface glabrous. Similar also to S. kangensis var. leiocarpa but ovary pilose.

Used as a nectariferous plant and for weaving wicker articles.

* Damp margins of woods, streamsides; 400-600 m. Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning