Shrubs or small trees. Branchlets reddish chestnut or yellow, densely white pubescent, glabrescent. Petiole short; leaf blade ovate-lanceolate to elliptic, ca. 5 × 1.5 cm, abaxially pruinose or glaucous, downy, glabrescent, adaxially dull green, base narrowly rounded or cuneate, margin entire, apex acute; young leaves convolute, silky downy, abaxially white tomentose, apex obtuse or rounded; lateral veins 7-12 on each side of midvein adaxially. Flowering precocious or coetaneous. Male catkin narrowly terete, (2.5-)6 cm × 6-7 mm; peduncle ca. 1.5 cm, with 2 or 3 leaflets; rachis downy; bracts yellowish green, obovate, silky villous or abaxially subglabrous, ca. 1/2 as long as filaments. Male flower: adaxial and abaxial glands entire or divided; stamens 2; filaments free, base downy; anthers yellow, globose, small. Female catkin 3-6 cm × 4-6 mm; bracts yellowish green (brown when dry), elliptic, ca. 2 mm, densely long silky. Female flower: gland adaxial; ovary ovoid or narrowly ovoid, silky tomentose, sessile or shortly stipitate; style ca. 1/3 as long as ovary, cleft; stigma 2-lobed. Capsule narrowly ovoid to ovoid-conical, 4-6 mm, subglabrous. Fl. Apr, fr. May.

* Margins of woods, mountain slopes, marshes; 600-1800 m. Hubei, Hunan, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Sichuan