Shrubs low, to 30 cm tall; trunk ascending, rooting. Branchlets purple, glabrous; juvenile branchlets densely villous. Petiole short; leaf blade obovate-oblong or oblong-elliptic, rarely oblanceolate, 2-4.5 × 0.7-1.2 cm, abaxially grayish white, densely appressed villous, adaxially dull green, appressed villous, base cuneate, margin entire or indistinctly glandular dentate, apex acute; lateral veins 6 or 7 on each side of midvein, raised abaxially, impressed adaxially. Male catkin unknown. Fruiting catkin terminal, ca. 4 cm × 7-8 mm; bracts elliptic, ca. 1/2 as long as ovary, abaxially and marginally densely long white pubescent. Female flower: adaxial gland ovate, apex red, truncate; ovary ovoid, ca. 2 mm, densely downy, sessile; style red, ca. 1 mm, 2-parted; stigma 2-cleft, with elliptic or subcapitate lobes. Capsule ca. 3 mm. Fr. Jul.

* Mountain slopes; circa 3600 m. SE Xizang