Shrubs to 5 m tall. Branchlets brownish, thin, glabrous. Leaves petiolate; leaf blade linear-lanceolate or linear, 4-8 cm × 4-5 mm, both surfaces glabrous, silky when young, abaxially greenish, adaxially dull green, base cuneate, margin entire or denticulate, apex long acuminate; lateral veins obscure. Flowering nearly coetaneous. Male catkin unknown. Female catkin 3-4 cm, elongate in fruit; peduncle 5-10 mm, with lanceolate leaflets; rachis gray tomentose; bracts brownish, long obovate, with 3 veins, abaxially glabrous, basally and marginally downy, completely or partly caducous in fruit. Female flower: ovary conical, gray tomentose, sometimes subglabrous near base, shortly stipitate; style ca. as long as stigma; stigma brown, 2-cleft. Fl. Apr, fr. May.