Shrubs to 3 m tall. Branches black, glabrous, angled. Buds small, pubescent. Petiole ca. 5 mm, subglabrous; leaf blade lanceolate or elliptic-lanceolate, rarely obovate or elliptic, (1.6-)4-6(-8) × 0.7-1(-2) cm, both surfaces glabrous except along midvein or pilose when young, glabrescent, base cuneate, margin entire, apex acute. Male catkin cylindric, 2-6 cm × (3-)6 mm; peduncle with 2 or 3 leaflets at base; rachis villous; bracts brown, ovate-elliptic, margin glabrous or nearly sparsely ciliate. Male flower: glands adaxial and abaxial; stamens 2; filaments ca. 3 × as long as bracts, base downy; anthers yellow, ellipsoid-globose. Female catkin spreading, becoming pendulous, 4-7 cm × ca. 5 mm, densely flowered; peduncle with 2-4 leaflets at base; rachis villous; bracts suborbicular, glabrous or slightly ciliate. Female flower: gland adaxial; ovary ovoid, glabrous, subsessile; style 2-cleft; stigma 2-lobed. Capsule ovoid, glabrous, subsessile; Fl. May, fr. Jun-Jul.

Among shrubs on mountain slopes and in valleys; 500-4000 m. W Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan [Bhutan, India, Nepal, Sikkim].