Shrub 0.3-1.5 m tall. Juvenile branchlets white, pilose one year old branchlet brown or dull brown, glabrous. Bud oblong conical, beaked, 6-10 mm long, white tomentose becoming glabrous. Leaf exstipulate; petiole 2-3 mm long; lamina (linear)-lanceolate, obovate (2)-3.5-6-(12) x 0.7-3 cm, silky tomentose on both the sides or glabrous above, entire, hairy, minutely glandular, dentate; tip obtuse, mucronate.. Catkin precocious, sessile to 6-8 mm long peduncle. Male catkin at anthesis 1.5-2.5 x 0.8-1 - (1.2) cm. Female catkin, at maturity 1.5-4 x 1.2-1.4 cm. Rachis canescent; bracts c. 1-2 x 0.6-1 mm, blackish, villous. Gland in male flower linear oblong, up to 0.9 mm long; female 0.5 mm long, oblong. Stamens 2, free or partly or completely united, glabrous; anthers 0.4-0.6 mm long (in dry condition). Ovary c. 2 mm long, pilose, style 0.1-0.3 mm long, stigma 0.3-0.5 mm long. Fruit stipe 0.6-1.3 mm long; capsule 5-7 mm long.

Fl. Per.: May-June.

Syntypes: Darwas: Mazar, Lipsky 3816; Schugnan: Schtam, O. & B. Fedtschenko (LE). Vide A.K. Skvortsov (in Rech.f., Fl. Iran. 65: 35. 1969).

Distribution: Afghanistan, Paksitan (Chitral), Tajikistan, China (Xinjiang).