Shrubs. Branchlets yellowish green or purplish red, glabrous; juvenile branchlets sparsely tomentose at first, becoming subglabrous. Stipules linear to lanceolate, 1-1.5 cm; petiole ca. 5 mm, margin remotely glandular dentate, usually tomentulose; leaf blade lanceolate, 7-11 × ca. 1.5 cm, abaxially pale, both surfaces glabrous, tomentulose when young, adaxially dull green, base cuneate, margin glandular denticulate, apex shortly acuminate; lateral veins diverging from brownish midvein at 45-90° . Flowering precocious. Male catkin terete, 3-4 cm × 4-5 mm, sessile or subsessile, with scalelike leaflets at base; rachis gray tomentose; bracts brown, long obovate, abaxially villous, apex obtuse-rounded, slightly darker. Male flower: glands adaxial; stamens 2, connate throughout. Female catkin ca. 4 mm thick. Female flower: ovary conical, densely gray tomentose; stipe short to absent; style conspicuous; stigma 2-cleft. Capsule pilose. Fl. Mar, fr. Apr-May.

Very similar to Salix linearistipularis but branchlets more richly colored; catkins thinner; style longer.

Used for weaving wicker articles.

The name Salix mongolica Siuz. var. suchowensis (Cheng) N. Chao & G. T. Gong (J. Sichuan. For. Sci. Technol. 27: 11. 2006) appeared after the corresponding Flora volume.

* Plains, cultivated. E Henan, Jiangsu, S Shandong, N Zhejiang