Shrubs low, to 50 cm tall; trunk procumbent, not rooting, russet. Branches ascending; juvenile branchlets yellow-green, pubescent, 1-year-old branchlets chestnut colored, smooth, glabrous. Petiole 1-3 mm, villous at first; leaf blade linear, 5-9 × 2-4 mm, abaxially dull green, pilose when young, glabrescent, adaxially green and glabrous, base obtuse, apex obtuse or acute; midvein raised abaxially, impressed adaxially; lateral veins indistinct. Male catkin unknown. Female catkin terminal on leafy shoots, ca. 10 × 6 mm, ca. 25-flowered; rachis slightly downy; bracts obovate, margin glabrous, slightly ciliate, apex obtuse-rounded. Female flower: adaxial gland 1, terete, ca. 1/4 as long as bracts; ovary ovoid-conical, glabrous, subsessile; style ca. 1.5 mm, 2-parted; stigma 2-lobed. Fl. May.

* Along streams; circa 3000 m. NW Yunnan (Lijiang Naxizu Zizhixian)