Shrubs large. Branchlets russet or purplish red to blackish purple, sometimes pruinose; 2-year-old branchlets grayish brown. Buds ovoid, pilose. Petiole short; leaf blade narrowly obovate-oblong to narrowly oblanceolate, 2-4 cm × 5-10 mm, base cuneate to rounded, margin serrate or entire proximally. Flowering precocious or nearly coetaneous. Male catkin 1.2-2(-2.5) × ca. 1 cm, sessile; bracts yellowish black, yellowish green proximally, obovate, ca. 1 mm, long pubescent, apex acute or obtuse. Male flower: gland terete; stamens 2; filaments connate throughout, ca. 3 mm, glabrous; anthers red, distinct or slightly united. Female catkin ca. 10 × 7 mm, 1.5-2(-4) cm in fruit, sessile; bracts obovate or subrounded, 2-colored, abaxially sparsely long pubescent. Female flower: ovary ovoid, densely pubescent, sessile. Capsule pilose. Fl. May.

Has been considered a hybrid between Salix myrtillacea and S. wilhelmsiana.

* Along streams. Gansu, Qinghai