Shrubs cushion-shaped. Branchlets spreading or nearly erect, yellowish or chestnut-brown. Leaf blade elliptic or ovate, 1-3 × 0.5-2 cm, gray downy when young, glabrescent, base cuneate, margin glandular denticulate, apex obtuse or acute. Catkins lateral on distal part of branchlets; peduncle thick, long, villous, leafy; bracts dull colored, obovoid or broadly elliptic, densely villous. Male flower: stamens 2; filaments distinct, occasionally united at base, glabrous; anthers dull purplish red. Fruiting catkin 3-5 cm. Female flower: ovary tomentose, shortly stipitate; style short; stigma 2-cleft. Capsule conical, tomentose. Fl. Jun-Jun.

Alpine tundra; 2700-2800 m. Xinjiang (Altay Shan) [N Mongolia, Russia (S Siberia)].