Trees to 10 m tall; bark whitish gray, deeply furrowed. Branchlets stout, yellowish white, with short internodes and dense leaf scars, pubescent, glabrescent. Buds viscid, downy. Petiole subterete, 1-2.5(-4) cm, with dense, yellow hairs; leaf blade suborbicular or ovate to broadly ovate, 4.5-8 × 4-6 cm, abaxially yellowish white or white, trichiferous along veins, adaxially pilose, base shallowly cordate, truncate, or rounded, margin sinuolate-serrate, apex shortly acuminate. Fruiting catkin 5-8 cm; rachis pilose; bracts wider than long. Disc with sinuous teeth. Capsule globose-ovoid, 4-5 mm, pubescent or glabrous, 2- or 3-valved, sessile or shortly stipitate. Fl. May, fr. Jun.

River valleys, mixed woods; 1600-2400 m. Xinjiang [Mongolia].