Shrubs to 2 m tall. Branchlets reddish purple, glabrous; branchlets of male plants slightly pubescent. Petiole 4-5 mm, glabrous or densely pubescent; leaf blade oblong, elliptic-oblong, lanceolate, or narrowly lanceolate, 1.5-4 × 1-1.5 cm, abaxially greenish, pilose when young, glabrescent, adaxially green, base rounded, broadly cuneate, or cuneate, margin entire, apex acute, obtuse, or shortly acuminate. Male catkin cylindric, 1.8-2.5 cm × ca. 4 mm; rachis villous; bracts obovate, ca. 1/2 as long as filaments, glabrous. Male flower: adaxial gland terete; stamens 2; filaments downy at base. Female catkin cylindric, to 4 cm in fruit; bracts ovate, glabrous. Female flower: adaxial gland terete, ca. 1/2 as long as bracts; ovary ovoid, glabrous, sessile; style 2-cleft; stigma short. Fl. May-Jun, fr. Jun.

* Mountain slopes, valleys, woods; 1200-3000 m. Gansu, Shaanxi, Shanxi.