Shrubs small, to 50 cm tall. Branchlets russet when young, sparsely villous, when mature dull brown, glabrous. Buds oblong, glabrous. Petiole 0.5-1.5 cm, puberulent; leaf blade obovate-elliptic, elliptic, or oblong, 1.5-3.5 × 1-1.8 cm, abaxially greenish, white villous when young, glabrescent, adaxially dull green, shiny, glabrous, or pubescent along midvein, base broadly cuneate or slightly obtuse, margin indistinctly sparsely glandular serrate, apex acute or obtuse; veins conspicuous. Flowering coetaneous. Male catkin terminal, 2-3 cm, with leaflets at base; rachis pubescent; bracts oblong, ca. 1/2 as long as filaments, ciliate, pubescent at base, apex obtuse-rounded. Male flower: glands adaxial and abaxial; stamens 2, ca. 5 mm, basally pilose. Female catkin similar to male; bracts oblong, margin irregularly dentate, apex obtuse or rounded-truncate. Female flower: gland adaxial; ovary ovoid-cylindric, pubescent, glabrescent in fruit except at base, sessile; style 2-cleft; stigma 2-lobed. Fl. Jul, fr. Aug-Sep.