Shrubs low, to 50 cm tall. Juvenile branchlets fastigiate, crowded together at apex of branches, dark brown, glabrous. Buds dull yellow, oblong, slightly flat, glabrous. Petiole 3-8 mm, glabrous; leaf blade broadly oblong, 1-2 × 0.6-1.2 cm, woolly when young, glabrescent; base broadly cuneate or subrounded, margin serrate distally, apex slightly obtuse or subacute. Flowering coetaneous. Catkins at apex of branchlets. Male catkin ca. 1.5 cm × 6 mm; rachis pilose; bracts elliptic, ciliate. Male flower: glands 2; stamens 2; filaments partly connate or free, glabrous. Female catkin ca. 10 × 9 mm; rachis glabrous; bracts broadly elliptic or orbicular-obovate, glabrous at margin or loosely ciliate. Female flower: gland adaxial; ovary glabrous; stipe short; style ca. 2 mm, lobed; stigma 2-lobed, apex subtruncate, sometimes shallowly undulate, Fl. Jul.

A. K. Skvortsov indicates that this species may be the same as Salix paraflabellaris.

* 3500-3800 m. Yunnan (Gongshan Drungzu Nuzu Zizhixian)