Shrubs or small trees to 5 m tall. Branchlets brown or dark chestnut colored, glabrous, pubescent when young. Petiole 2-3 mm; leaf blade lanceolate, rarely oblanceolate, 3.5-6 × 1.4-1.6 cm, abaxially pale, adaxially green, both surfaces glabrous or pilose along midvein, downy when young, base rounded-cuneate, margin glandular serrate, apex shortly acuminate or acuminate. Male catkin narrowly cylindric, 2-2.2 cm × 4-5 mm; peduncle 4-5 mm, densely downy, with 2 or 3 leaflets, blade oblanceolate or lanceolate; bracts brownish, long ovate, ca. 1/3 as long as filaments, abaxially and marginally with long, yellow hairs, adaxially subglabrous or sparsely long pubescent. Male flower: adaxial gland broader than abaxial gland, usually divided; stamens 2; filaments 2.4-2.5 mm, basally connate and pilose. Female catkin 1.6-2 cm × ca. 4 mm; peduncle 7-9 mm, densely downy, with 3 or 4 obovate-lanceolate leaflets; bracts brown, ovate, both surfaces yellow with long hairs, apex rounded. Female flower: gland 1(or 2), adaxial gland broad, lobed or entire, abaxial gland sometimes present, small; ovary cylindric-ovoid, 2-2.2 mm, glabrous or downy proximally, subsessile; style short; stigma 4-lobed. Fl. Apr, fr. Apr-May.

* Near water, along rivers, or cultivated; 700-900 m. Gansu, Hubei, Shaanxi.