Trees to 20 m tall; trunk to 1 m d.b.h.; bark dark, furrowed; crown globose or oblong. Branchlets brownish green, stout, glabrous, shiny, at first pubescent, glabrescent, brittle. Buds oblong, apex acute. Stipules present or absent; petiole 2-7 mm, pubescent or glabrous, apex glandular; leaf blade lanceolate or broadly lanceolate, 8-10 × 1-1.6 cm, abaxially pale, glabrous, adaxially dull green, shiny, pubescent along midvein, base cuneate, margin glandular serrate, apex acuminate. Male catkin 3-5 cm × 4-6 mm; peduncle ca. 1 cm, with 0-3 leaflets; rachis pubescent; bracts yellow or dull yellow. Male flower: glands adaxial and abaxial; stamens 2; filaments sometimes pubescent at base; anthers yellow. Female catkin unknown. 2n = 76, rarely 38, 114.

A. K. Skvortsov doubts the presence of Salix fragilis in China because specimens he saw under this name from NE China belong to S. pierotii.

Planted for reforestation

Naturalized. Heilongjiang, Liaoning, Nei Mongol [native to Europe]