Trees or shrubs. Juvenile branchlets with filamentous hairs at base. Buds pilose at apex. Petiole to 1.5 cm, usually with several glands; leaf blade elliptic or narrowly ovate, ca. 11 × 6 cm, abaxially greenish, white villous along veins, adaxially dull green, glabrous or ± downy, base rounded to cuneate, margin glandular serrulate, apex acute to rounded; lateral veins 16-20 on each side of midvein. Catkins 6-8 cm; peduncle 1-3 cm, with leaflets; bracts narrowly obovate, ca. 1 mm, densely villous, apex rounded. Male flower: adaxial gland rectangular, abaxial gland broadly ovate, very small; stamens 2, glabrous. Fruiting catkin to 12 cm. Female flower: adaxial gland broadly ovate; ovary long pubescent or glabrous, shortly stipitate; style ca. 1 mm, 2-lobed; stigma 2-cleft. Capsule oblong-ovoid, pilose or glabrous, shortly stipitate.

In the original description of Salix fargesii, the ovary was described as pilose; however, because glabrous ovaries were found in the isotypes by K. O. Seemen (Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 29: 277. 1900), his opinion was that the ovary of the type was glabrous. According to observations of the authors, as well as many other collections from the type location, the ovaries are either of two forms: pilose or glabrous. Therefore, it seems that the type collection (A. Henry 5678) is probably a mixture of these forms. The authors follow I. H. Burkill’s opinion, and treat the form with the pilose ovary as the autonymic variety. The name Salix fargesii var. hypotricha N. Chao (Bull. For. Pl. Res. 3: 5. 1985), requires further study as to its identity.

* Mountains; 1400-1600 m. Gansu, Hubei, Shaanxi, Sichuan