Shrubs or small trees, to 6 m tall. Branchlets blackish brown, pubescent when young, glabrescent. Buds brown, ovoid. Stipules small, obliquely ovate, margin glandular serrate; petiole ca. 1 cm; leaf blade oblong-elliptic to broadly elliptic, 3-8 × 1-3.5 cm, abaxially pale or pruinose, adaxially bright green, both surfaces yellowish tomentose when young, glabrescent, base cuneate to rounded, margin entire, apex acute or shortly acuminate; lateral veins 7-14 on each side of midvein. Flowering coetaneous. Male catkin 2-4(-5) cm × ca. 7 mm; peduncle short or absent; rachis pilose; bracts brown distally, oblong-elliptic, pilose or glabrous, ± ciliate. Male flower: adaxial and abaxial glands cylindric, ca. 1/3 as long as bracts, sometimes lobed, abaxial gland shorter than adaxial; stamens 2, distinct; filaments 2.3-3.5 mm, distal part villous; anthers yellow or red in distal part of catkin. Female catkin 2-3 cm × 4-6 mm; peduncle with 2-4 leaflets; bracts as in male catkin. Female flower: adaxial gland ovate or shortly cylindric; ovary ovoid, glabrous adaxially or pubescent at base only, or pilose adaxially and at adaxial and abaxial sutures, sessile or shortly stipitate; style conspicuous, 2-lobed; stigma thick, 2-lobed. Capsule ca. 5 mm. Fl. Apr-May, fr. Jun.

* Mountain slopes, along streams in woods, near rivers, damp places in Picea forests; 2800-4000 m. W Sichuan, E Xizang, W Yunnan.