Shrubs low, to 30 cm tall. Branchlets dull brown, glabrous, shiny. Stipules oblique or broadly ovate; petiole 2-5(-6) mm, glabrous; leaf blade ovate or ovate to suborbicular, 1-2.5 × 0.9-2 cm, abaxially glaucous, glabrous, adaxially dull green, base rounded, margin entire, usually revolute, apex obtuse. Male catkin terete, 2-2.8 cm × 4-7 mm, with 2 or 3 leaflets at base; rachis downy; bracts brown, obovate-oblong, abaxially pilose, adaxially densely white villous. Male flower: gland adaxial; stamens 2; filaments white villous at base; anthers yellow, ovoid-oblong. Female catkin 2.5-4.5 cm × ca. 4 mm, with 3-5 normal leaflets at base; rachis brownish yellow, pilose; bracts brownish purple, suborbicular, glabrous. Female flower: adaxial gland terete, ca. as long as bracts. style 2-cleft; stigma short. Capsule glabrous. Fl. Apr, fr. May-Jun.

* Mountain slopes; 2500-4000 m. E Xizang, NW Yunnan