Shrubs to 1.5 m tall; much branched. Branchlets brown or grayish brown; juvenile branchlets tomentose. Buds ovoid or oblong, slightly shorter than petiole, tomentose, apex obtuse. Petiole 2-5 mm, pilose; leaf blade elliptic or elliptic-lanceolate, 1.5-5.2 × 0.6-1.5 cm, abaxially glaucous, glabrous, adaxially dull green, sometimes tomentose, both ends obtuse or acute, margin entire. Male catkin 2-3.5 cm × 5-8 mm, densely flowered; peduncle 0.5-1.5 cm, villous, usually with 3 or more leaflets; bracts yellowish brown, ovate or obovate, ciliate, apex rounded. Male flower: adaxial gland ovate-oblong, slightly shorter than bracts; stamens 2, free; filaments 3-4 × as long as bracts, sparsely long downy proximally; anthers yellow, ovoid or subglobose. Female catkin 2-3(-5) cm, densely flowered, shortly pedunculate; bracts obovate-oblong, ciliate. Female flower: gland adaxial; ovary ellipsoid, ca. 3 mm, glabrous, sessile; style short, 2-cleft; stigma short, 2-lobed. Capsule subglobose, sessile or subsessile. Fl. May, fr. Jun-Jul.