Shrubs or small trees, to 5(-8) m tall. Branchlets grayish brown or russet, downy when young, glabrescent. Buds russet, ovoid-ellipsoid, shiny. Petiole 3-6 mm, pubescent, glandular at apex; leaf blade elliptic-lanceolate, lanceolate, elliptic, or elliptic-oblong, 2.4-6.5 × 0.9-1.8 cm, abaxially pale pruinose, white downy along veins, adaxially green, downy along yellow midvein, base broadly cuneate, margin glandular serrate, apex acuminate. Male catkin unknown. Female catkin 2.5-3.2 cm; peduncle with 2 or 3 leaflets; rachis pubescent; bracts ovate, white villous. Female flower: ovary ovoid-cylindric or globose, pubescent or glabrous, shortly stipitate or sessile; style conspicuous; stigma 2- or 4-lobed. Capsule ovoid-oblong. Fl. May, fr. Jun.

* Mountain slopes, riverbanks, along streams, margins of woods, roadsides, valleys; 1000-1400 m. E and S Gansu, S Shaanxi.