Shrubs to more than 1 m tall. Second-year branchlets slightly primose; branchlets russet when young, reddish black when dried. Petiole 5-7 mm; leaf blade ovate or elliptic, ca. 3.5 × 2 cm, abaxially grayish green, glabrous, adaxially green, pubescent when young and along midvein, base shallowly cordate to rounded or cuneate to rounded-cuneate, margin entire, apex obtuse or acute; midvein conspicuous adaxially; cataphyll abaxially long silky. Flowering coetaneous. Male catkin 2.5-3 × ca. 1 cm, sessile; bracts yellowish green, elliptic, densely white villous, or adaxially glabrous or subglabrous. Male flower: gland adaxial; stamens 2; filaments distinct, villous at base; anthers red, rarely yellow at base of catkin, ovoid. Female catkin 1-2 cm × ca. 4 mm; bracts as in male catkin, ca. 1 mm. Female flower: gland adaxial, cylindric or ovate, ca. as long as stipe; ovary ovoid-conical, ca. 2 mm, gray downy or glabrous; stipe ca. 0.4 mm; style ca. 0.5 mm, 2-parted; stigma 2-cleft or entire. Fl. Apr-May.

* Thickets on mountain slopes; circa 1400 m. Hebei, Henan, Shandong, Shanxi.