Trees to 20 m tall; trunk to 50 cm d.b.h.; bark grayish green when young, dark gray on old trees, furrowed; crown subrounded. Branchlets of young trees and sprouts usually russet, becoming yellowish brown, conspicuously angled; branchlets of old trees terete, slender, glabrous. Buds brown, elongate, viscid, apex acuminate. Petiole yellowish green or reddish, terete, 0.5-4 cm; leaf blade rhombic-ovate, rhombic-elliptic, or rhombic-obovate, 3-12 × 2-8 cm, broadest above middle, abaxially grayish green or slightly white, adaxially brightly greenish, glabrous, base cuneate, broadly cuneate, or narrowly rounded, margin serrulate, apex abruptly acute or acuminate. Male catkin 2-7 cm; rachis glabrous; bracts greenish, laciniate, lobes brown, glabrous. Male flower: stamens 8-9(-25). Female catkin 2.5-6 cm, to 15 cm in fruit. Female flower: stigma 2-lobed. Capsule small, glabrous or pubescent, 2(or 3)-valved. Fl. Mar-May, fr. Apr-Jun. 2n = 38*

Used for timber.

Mountains, plains, alluvial deposits, valleys; near sea level to 3000 m. Hebei, Heilongjiang, Jiangsu, Jilin, Liaoning, Nei Mongol, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Sichuan, Yunnan, Zhejiang [Mongolia]