Shrubs to 3.5 m tall; usually branched. Branchlets purplish brown, subglabrous. Petiole 1-3(-4) mm, white downy or tomentose; leaf blade elliptic or elliptic-oblong, 1.5-3 cm × 5-7 mm, abaxially glaucous, densely downy, adaxially white tomentose along midvein, base rounded, margin entire, apex obtuse or acute. Male catkin 3-4 × ca. 4 mm, densely flowered; peduncle with 2 or 3 leaflets; rachis downy; bracts obovate, adaxially pilose. Male flower: adaxial gland terete; stamens 2; filaments downy at base; anthers yellow, globose. Female catkin 2-3 cm × ca. 5 mm, ca. 4 cm in fruit; peduncle 3-5 mm, to 2 cm in fruit, white downy, with 2 or 3 leaflets; rachis downy; bracts brown, both surfaces downy, margin long ciliate. Female flower: adaxial gland oblong; ovary ovoid-cylindric, glabrous, subsessile; style 2-lobed; stigma 2-cleft. Capsule ovoid-conical, shortly stipitate. Fl. May, fr. Jun.