Shrubs or trees, 4-9 m. Stems: branches gray-brown to red-brown, glabrous or villous; branchlets yellow brown to red-brown, densely tomentose or villous to glabrescent. Leaves: stipules absent or rudimentary on early ones, rudimentary or foliaceous on late ones; petiole 1-5(-9) mm, glabrous or sparsely villous adaxially; largest medial blade linear to lorate, 60-160 × 4-11 mm, (6.5-)11-19(-31) times as long as wide, base cuneate, margins flat, remotely spinulose-serrulate (teeth 2-5 per cm), apex acute or subacuminate, abaxial surface thinly glaucous, densely villous or long-silky to glabrescent, adaxial slightly glossy, pilose or densely villous to glabrescent; proximal blade margins entire; juvenile blade reddish or yellowish green, moderately densely to sparsely long-silky abaxially. Catkins (flowering throughout season); staminate 20-61 × 4-10 mm, flowering branchlet 3-20 mm; pistillate loosely flowered, slender or stout, 20-67 × 5-9 mm, flowering branchlet 3-19 mm; floral bract (sometimes greenish), 1.5-3.5 mm, apex acute, acuminate, or rounded, entire, erose, or toothed, abaxially hairy either proximally or distally, hairs wavy. Staminate flowers: abaxial nectary 0.5-1.1 mm, adaxial nectary ovate, narrowly oblong, or flask-shaped, 0.6-1.4 mm, nectaries distinct; filaments hairy; anthers 0.4-0.9 mm. Pistillate flowers: adaxial nectary narrowly oblong, 0.4-1.1 mm, shorter to longer than stipe; stipe 0.4-0.8 mm; ovary obclavate to pyriform, glabrous, glabrescent, or long-silky, beak abruptly tapering to styles; ovules 16-36 per ovary; styles 0-0.2 mm; stigmas flat, abaxially non-papillate with pointed tip, or broadly cylindrical, 0.3-0.7 mm. Capsules (4-)5-8(-10) mm. 2n = 38.
Forming thickets on sandy to silty flood plains, margins of lakes, ponds, and prairie sloughs, dry prairie sand hills, marshes, disturbed areas; at elevations up to 1,800 metres.
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