Trees to 5 m tall; bark grayish white. Branchlets yellowish brown, pilose when young, glabrescent, shiny. Petiole ca. 7 mm; leaf blade lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, rarely oblanceolate, 3-4 × 0.8-1.2 cm, abaxially slightly bluish gray, glabrous or downy at base of midvein, adaxially green, glabrous, silky villous when young, margin glandular serrate; lateral veins of both surfaces indistinct. Male catkin unknown. Immature female catkin 1.5-3 × 1-1.2 cm; peduncle ca. 6 mm, with 2 or 3 leaflets; bracts nearly black, oblong, abaxially pubescent at base and margin, adaxially glabrous. Female flower: gland adaxial, longer than stipe; ovary narrowly ovoid or ovoid, pubescent, shortly stipitate or subsessile; style conspicuous, 2-lobed; stigma 2-cleft. Fr. Jul.