Trees to 15 m tall; bark grayish, darkened and furrowed toward base of trunk; crown wide. Sprouts and branchlets yellowish, angled, tomentose or rarely glabrous. Buds conical, very viscid; basal scales tomentose. Leaves of short branchlets with leaf blade elliptic, ovate, or oblong-ovate, 6-12 × 4-7 cm, base rounded or cuneate, margin crenulate, ciliate, apex acute or shortly acuminate. Leaves of sprouts with petioles terete, 2-5 cm, adaxially canaliculate, tomentose; leaf blade lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, 10-15 cm. Male catkin 3-4 cm; bracts suborbicular, 3-5 mm, usually caducous, base cuneate, margin laciniate, with brown lobes. Male flower: stamens 30-40; anthers purplish red. Female catkin 5-6 cm, elongated in fruit; rachis tomentose. Capsule ovoid, 5-6 mm, glabrous or pilose, 2- or 3-valved. Fl. Apr-May, fr. Jun.

Used for fuel, wood pulp, and making farm tools.

Riverbanks; 500-1900 m. Nei Mongol, Xinjiang (Altay Shan, Tacheng Diqu) [NW Mongolia, Russia]