Shrubs. Branchlets russet or purplish red, slender, glabrous. Buds purplish red, rarely yellowish brown, ovoid, longer than petiole, at first pilose at apex, glabrescent, shiny. Leaves opposite, rarely alternate, thinly leathery; petiole 2-5 mm; leaf blade oblanceolate or linear-oblanceolate, 5-10 × 0.6-1.5 cm, glabrous, abaxially pale, adaxially green, base cuneate, margin entire proximally, serrulate distally, apex acuminate or acute; midvein yellowish; lateral veins dense, curved. Flowering precocious. Catkins opposite, rarely alternate, thinly terete, 2-3 cm × 3-4 mm, sessile; bracts black, obovate or long obovate, ca. 1.5 mm, villous, apex obtuse. Male flower: stamens 2, connate throughout, rarely only filaments united, glabrous; anthers purplish red, globose, 4-loculed, rarely 2-loculed. Female flower: ovary ovoid, densely grayish white tomentose, sessile; style short to absent; stigma entire or 2-lobed. Fl. May, fr. Jun.
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