Shrubs or trees to 6 m tall. Branchlets dull red or yellowish brown, glabrous, downy when young. Buds russet, glabrous. Stipules absent or small, semicordate; petiole 5-7 mm; leaf blade broadly ovate-elliptic, broadly elliptic, or obovate-elliptic, rarely ovate-lanceolate, 3-5 × 1.5-3 cm, glabrous or only veins pilose, abaxially greenish or whitish, adaxially dull green, base rounded or cuneate-rounded, margin entire or irregularly serrate distally, apex acute; lateral veins 7-10 on each side of midvein. Flowering slightly precocious or coetaneous. Male catkin broadly ellipsoid, ca. 2 × 1.5 cm; bracts purplish black distally, oblong-elliptic or obovate-oblong, ca. 2 mm, abaxially villous, apex rounded-obtuse. Male flower: gland 1; stamens 2; filaments united nearly throughout, ca. 6.5 mm, downy proximally; anthers red or golden yellow. Female catkin cylindric, ca. 3.5 × 1.5 cm; peduncle very short; bracts purplish black distally, oblong-elliptic or obovate-oblong, apex acuminate to rounded-obtuse. Female flower: gland small; ovary long conical, ca. 5 mm, downy, long stipitate; style short; stigma 2-cleft. Capsule with valves revolute. Fl. May, fr. Jun.

Very similar to Salix sinica but leaf blade generally wider, apex shorter; filaments partly united, downy. A. K. Skvortsov indicates that the circumboreal species S. phylicifolia Linnaeus, as treated in Fl. Tsinling., was based on misidentified specimens of S. pseudowallichiana or S. characta. R. Goerz considered that S. pseudowallichiana might be a hybrid between S. wallichiana and S. rockii.

* Riverbanks. E Qinghai, Shanxi, N Sichuan