Shrubs cushion-shaped, to. 10 cm tall; trunk creeping. Branches procumbent or decumbent; juvenile branchlets villous, 1-year-old branchlets chestnut brown, glabrous. Buds reddish, ovate, subglabrous. Petiole 1-2 mm, downy; leaf blade ovate-oblong, 4-8 × 2-4 mm, abaxially pale, dark downy when young, later glabrescent, adaxially green, subglabrous, papillate, base obtuse or rounded, margin entire, apex acute or subacute; midvein raised abaxially, impressed adaxially; lateral veins conspicuous, ca. 4 on each side of midvein abaxially, obscure adaxially. Catkins terminal on young shoots, ca. 5 cm × 4 mm, 6-8-flowered; bracts oblong, abaxially dark crisped downy at margin, apex rounded, densely ciliate. Male flower: glands adaxial and abaxial, subequal, ca. 1/2 as long as bracts; stamens 2, free; filaments glabrous, slightly longer than bracts. Female catkin unknown. Fl. Jul.

A. K. Skvortsov notes that this species is very near or possibly the same as Salix oreophila.

The name Salix hylematica C. K. Schneider var. scopulicola (Mao & W. Z. Li) N. Chao & G. T. Gong (J. Sichuan. For. Sci. Technol. 27: 10. 2006) appeared after the corresponding Flora volume.

* About 4000 m. Yunnan (Gongshan Drungzu Nuzu Zizhixian: Dulong Jiang valley)