Shrubs to 4 m tall. Branchlets blackish brown, downy when young and glabrescent, or glabrous. Petiole 4-7 mm; leaf blade elliptic or elliptic-oblong, 4-6(-8) × 1.4-2(-2.4) cm, glabrous, abaxially whitish, adaxially greenish or green, reddish when young or pubescent only veins, base cuneate or subrounded, margin entire, apex acute or shortly acuminate. Flowering coetaneous or precocious. Male catkin unknown. Female catkin pedunculate; peduncle ca. 5 mm, to ca. 1 cm in fruit, with (1 or) 2 or 3 sometimes caducous leaflets; bracts dark brown or yellowish green, elliptic-oblong, obovate, or obovate-oblong, abaxially villous and ciliate or sparsely villous, sometimes glabrescent distally, adaxially glabrous, apex obtuse or subacute. Female flower: glands 1 or 2, adaxial and abaxial or adaxial only, entire or 2-cleft; ovary narrowly ovoid, ca. 2 mm, white downy, sessile; style 1/3-1/2 as long as ovary, 2-lobed to cleft; stigma 2-cleft. Capsule ca. 4 mm; stipe short or absent. Fl. Apr, fr. May-Jun.

* Mountain slopes, sandy shores, near water; 2600-3100 m. Gansu, E Xizang, NW Yunnan.