Shrubs , usually multitrunked, from short stolons, often forming dense clumps, not aromatic or resinous; twigs, leaves, and flower buds stellate-pubescent. Bark light gray on mature branches, smooth. Dormant buds naked, densely stellate-pubescent; terminal bud short-stalked or sessile, with 2-4 subtending scales. Leaves short-petiolate. Leaf blade elliptic to obovate to oblong, ovate, to nearly orbiculate, unlobed, pinnately veined, base oblique, cuneate, truncate to rounded, margins transparent, crenate or serrate-dentate, occasionally undulate to entire, apex rounded to acute. Inflorescences terminal, elongate, many flowered, dense spikes, sessile or short-pedunculate. Flowers bisexual, fragrant, basal flowers functionally staminate, appearing before leaves; calyx lobes 5-7(-9), erect, minute, irregular, forming shallowly campanulate hypanthium with adnate androecium; sepals connate; petals absent; stamens 12-32, conspicuous, in centrifugal sequence on rim of hypanthium; filaments white, 4-17 mm, conspicuous, the longest somewhat club-shaped distally; anthers dehiscing by 2 flaps; staminodes absent; ovary adnate to hypanthium, ca. 1/3 its length; styles 2, becoming hornlike, with recurved tip. Capsules in groups of more than 3, stylar beaks prominent, appressed stellate-pubescent mixed with longer, straight hairs on calyx rim and distally, loculicidal. Seeds 2 per capsule, reddish brown, glossy, bony, not winged. x = 12.
Home