Trees to 18 m tall; trunk to 80 cm d.b.h.; bark dull grayish black, furrowed; crown broadly globose. Branchlets erect or spreading, brownish yellow or greenish, becoming brown, slender, glabrous, pilose when young. Buds slightly pubescent. Stipules when present lanceolate, margin glandular serrulate; petiole 5-8 mm, villous; leaf blade lanceolate, 5-10 × 1-1.5 cm, abaxially glaucous or slightly white, villous when young, adaxially green, shiny, base narrowly rounded, rarely cuneate, margin glandular serrulate, apex long acuminate. Male catkin cylindric, 1.5-2.5(-3) cm × 6-8 mm, ± pedunculate; bracts yellowish green, ovate, ± pubescent at base or glabrous, apex obtuse. Male flower: glands 2; stamens 2, long pubescent at base; anthers yellow. Female catkin ca. 2 cm × 4 mm, with 3-5 leaflets at base; bracts as in male catkin. Female flower: glands adaxial and abaxial or only adaxial gland present; ovary long ellipsoid, glabrous, subsessile; style almost absent; stigma ovate, lobed. Fl. Apr, fr. Apr-May. 2n = 38*.

A. K. Skvortsov believes that this species may be synonymous with Salix babylonica.

* Commonly planted on plains, riverbanks. Anhui, Fujian, Gansu, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Henan, Jiangsu, Liaoning, Nei Mongol, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Zhejiang