Shrubs or small trees. Branchlets brown or dull brown, glabrous or sparsely pubescent. Buds yellowish brown, ovoid-oblong. Stipules semiovate-elliptic, 7-8 mm, margin glandular dentate, apex long acuminate; petiole 2-8 mm, white downy; leaf blade lanceolate to oblanceolate, 5-11 × 1.2-2.5 cm, abaxially greenish, white downy or glabrous, adaxially dark green, pubescent, base cuneate, rarely rounded, margin subentire or glandular crenate, rarely entire, apex obtuse, acute, or shortly acuminate. Flowering precocious or nearly coetaneous. Male catkin ellipsoid to shortly terete, sessile; bracts oblong, villous. Male flower: adaxial gland narrowly oblong; stamens 2; filaments free or united at base, glabrous or sparsely long pubescent at base; anthers golden yellow or purple. Female catkin terete; peduncle short, with 2 or 3 leaflets. Female flower: ovary cylindric-ovoid, 4-6 mm, downy or subglabrous, subsessile; style long, ca. 1/2 as long as ovary; stigmas 2(-4). Capsule brownish, pilose or glabrous. Fl. Apr-May, fr. May-Jun.

* Mountain slopes, thickets, streamsides; 1400-4000 m. Gansu, Ningxia, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan.