Trees to 10 m tall. Branchlets brown-yellow or green-brown, glabrous or subglabrous; 1-year-old branchlets yellow-brown, puberulent. Petiole 4-8(-10) mm, pilose; leaf blade elliptic, or obovate-lanceolate, 3-12 × 1-3.5 cm, pilose when young, glabrescent, abaxially greenish, dictyogenous, adaxially green, shiny, both surfaces glabrous or pilose along midvein abaxially, base cuneate, margin serrate, apex obtuse, acute, or acuminate. Flowering coetaneous. Male catkin 2-3.5 × ca. 1 cm; peduncle 1-1.5 cm, downy, with 2 or 3 leaflets; rachis densely downy; bracts brown, ovate or long ovate, 1.6-2.2 mm, both surfaces downy proximally. Male flower: glands 2, adaxial gland ligulate, abaxial gland terete, smaller; stamens 2; filaments distinct, ca. 3.5 mm, downy proximally; anthers yellow, subovoid. Fruiting catkin 3-4 cm × 8-10 mm; bracts ovate, ca. 2.5 mm, downy, apex obtuse or acute. Female flower: glands 2, as in male flower; ovary ovoid, 1.5-2 mm, glabrous; style conspicuous, 2-lobed; stigma 2-lobed. Capsule ovoid or long ovoid, 4-6 mm, glabrous; stipe short. Fl. May, fr. Jun.

A. K. Skvortsov postulates that this species may be a form of Salix babylonica or S. matsudana.

* Mountains. Gansu (Linxia Xian, Tianshui Xian, Xiahe Xian)