Shrubs low, to 50 cm tall. Branchlets dull brown, glabrous, when young gray or brownish tomentose. Buds brown, ovoid, 4-7 mm. Stipules deltoid-ovate, pilose; petiole 2-5 mm, with dense hairs; leaf blade obovate-orbicular, 1.5-4.5 × 1.5-3.5 cm, abaxially pale, glaucous, adaxially green, when young densely white villous abaxially, glabrescent, adaxially densely rust-colored pubescent, both ends obtuse-rounded, margin entire, rarely sparsely serrate near apex, apex often with a pleated mucro. Flowering coetaneous. Catkins terminal, 2-3 cm, densely flowered, with leaflets at base; rachis tomentose; bracts obovate-oblong, ca. 3 mm, pilose, apex obtuse or subtruncate. Male flower: adaxial and abaxial glands cylindric; stamens 2, ca. 6 mm; filaments pilose proximally; anthers yellow, ovoid. Female flower: ovary ovoid, densely grayish white pubescent, sessile; style 2-cleft; stigma 2-lobed. Fl. Jun, fr. Jul.

* Among shrubs; 3400-4700 m. E Xizang, NW Yunnan