Trees to 5 m tall. Juvenile branchlets tomentose. Stipules ovate; petiole 3-6 mm, tomentose; leaf blade oblong-elliptic, 5-8 × 2-3 cm, abaxially whitish, ± pilose, or pilose along midvein, adaxially grass green, base rounded, margin very indistinctly serrulate or subentire, apex acute; lateral veins indistinct abaxially. Flowering coetaneous. Male catkin unknown. Female catkin 6-8 × ca. 1 cm; peduncle long, with 5 leaflets; rachis downy; bracts elliptic, small, abaxially densely long pubescent, adaxially glabrous, apex rounded. Female flower: adaxial gland shortly ligulate, ca. as long as stipe; ovary ovoid-conical, downy, stipitate; style more than 1/2 as long as ovary; stigma 2-cleft. Capsule narrowly ovoid-conical, to 5 mm. Fl. Jun, fr. Jun-Jul.

Similar to Salix paraheterochroma but leaf blade oblong-elliptic, base rounded, margin indistinctly serrate; style long; ovary ovoid-conical. Similar also to S. yadongensis but bracts long pubescent abaxially, glabrous adaxially; flowers with adaxial glands only; ovary ovoid-conical, densely downy.

* Mountain valleys; circa 3200 m. Xizang (Gyirong Xian)