Shrubs to 6 m tall; bark dull gray. Branchlets reddish green or yellowish, slender, glabrous. Buds ovoid. Stipules linear, 5-7 mm, margin serrate; petiole 1-3(-5) mm, glabrous; leaf blade lanceolate or oblanceolate, 8-10 × 0.8-1.2 cm, to 16 × 1.6 cm on shoots, abaxially pale, adaxially dull green, base cuneate, glabrous, margin glandular serrate, apex shortly acuminate. Flowering precocious. Male catkin terete, 3-4.5 cm × ca. 5 mm, sessile, with 2 scalelike leaflets at base; bracts brown, black distally, obovate, ca. 1 mm, long pubescent, apex rounded. Male flower: stamens 2, connate throughout; filaments downy at base; anthers yellow. Female catkin 4-6 cm × 5-8 mm. Female flower: ovary conical, 1.5-2 mm, pubescent, shortly stipitate; style conspicuous, 0.3-0.5 mm; stigma 2-4-lobed. Capsule ca. 4 mm. Fl. May, fr. Jun.

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

* Alongside rivers. Heilongjiang (Harbin Shi)