Shrubs creeping. Branches brownish yellow, 5-10(-30) cm. Buds brownish red, small, glabrous. Petiole 5-7 mm; leaf blade elliptic, obovate-elliptic, or ovate-elliptic, 1.5-2.5 cm × 7-10 mm, glabrous, base cuneate, margin serrulate, apex acute or obtuse. Flowering coetaneous. Catkins terminal, 1-2 cm × 3-7 mm, laxly flowered; peduncle pilose, with 2 leaflets; bracts yellowish, obovate, abaxially glabrous, adaxially pilose, ciliate, apex purplish red. Male flower: glands adaxial and abaxial; stamens 2; filaments pilose at base. Fruiting catkin to 5 cm. Female flower: adaxial and abaxial glands 4-5 × as long as stipe; ovary ovoid-conical, glabrous, shortly stipitate; style nearly absent; stigma 2-cleft. Fl. Jun-Jul, fr. Jul. 2n = 22.

Alpine tundra; above 2600 m. Xinjiang (Altay Shan, Tian Shan) [Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Russia (S Siberia)]