Shrubs to 5 m tall; bark gray. Branchlets yellowish, slender, shiny. Buds ca. 5 mm, apex acute. Stipules linear, caducous; petiole 3-5 mm, glabrous; leaf blade linear-lanceolate or linear, usually broader distally, both surfaces uniformly colored, glabrous, slightly tomentose when young, 5-8 cm × 4-5 cm, base cuneate, margin entire, apex long acuminate. Flowering precocious. Catkins terete, subsessile, with readily deciduous, scalelike leaflets at base, densely flowered; rachis tomentose; bracts brownish, pilose, apex obtuse. Male flower: stamens 2; filaments connate, basally downy; anthers yellow. Female flower: ovary ovoid-conical, densely tomentose, subsessile; style very short; stigma capitate. Capsule brownish, pubescent. Fl. Apr-May, fr. Jun.
Riverbanks in the desert and steppe zone, loose sands and sand dunes amply supplied with fresh groundwater, in blown-out depressions, and in mountain valleys; at elevations up to 2,000 metres.
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