Shrubs. Branchlets black or dark brown, glabrous or subglabrous. Buds pilose. Stipules ovate, ca. 1 mm, glabrous, dentate; petiole to 1.3 cm, adaxially pubescent; leaf blade oblong, obovate, or oblanceolate, 4-11 × 1.5-3 cm, abaxially greenish, adaxially dark green, both surfaces pubescent or villous, glabrescent, base cuneate or broadly cuneate, margin entire or with remote, indistinct, glandular teeth, apex acute or shortly acuminate; veins raised abaxially; lateral veins 15-20 on each side of midvein; reticulate veins conspicuous. Catkins ca. 3.5 × 6 mm; peduncle ca. 2.5 cm, with leaflets; rachis velvety; bracts obovate, 2-3 mm, downy, margin entire or incised, apex rounded or truncate. Male flower: abaxial gland very small, adaxial gland ovate, ca. 0.5 mm; stamens 2, distinct; filaments downy proximally; anthers yellow. Fruiting catkin ca. 9 × 1.5 cm. Female flower: glands 2, abaxial gland sometimes absent, adaxial gland broadly ovate, ca. 0.5 mm; ovary white villous, sessile; style ca. 2 mm, 2-parted; stigma linear, parted. Capsule narrowly ovoid, ca. 6 mm, pilose. Fl. Jun, fr. Jul-Aug.

A. K. Skvortsov indicates that these plants may in fact be Salix ernestii because S. eriostachya is of Himalayan distribution.

Mountains; 3000-5000 m. Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan [India, Nepal, Sikkim]