Shrubs or trees to 4 m tall. Branchlets brown or chestnut colored, slightly thick, tomentulose when young, glabrescent, shiny. Buds chestnut colored, ovoid, at first gray tomentose. Stipules lanceolate, caducous; petiole 7-10 mm, slightly shorter than leaf bud, pilose; leaf blade obovate-lanceolate, 4-8 × 0.9-1.5 cm, larger on shoots, abaxially greenish, tomentulose, when young silky, adaxially dull green, base attenuate, margin entire or indistinctly remotely glandular dentate, usually revolute, apex shortly acuminate; veins conspicuous, brown. Male catkin unknown. Female catkin 4-5 × ca. 1 cm in fruit, shortly pedunculate; bracts russet, light proximally, ovate, densely long gray pubescent, apex acute. Female flower: gland oblong; stigma linear, nearly as long as style. Capsule oblong or oblong-ovoid, gray tomentose. Fl. Jun. fr. Jul.

Margins of woods, sandy or gravelly places; circa 1800 m. Xinjiang (Burqin Xian) [N Mongolia, Russia]