Shrubs or small to large trees. Branchlets yellowish brown or chestnut colored, pilose when young. Buds yellowish brown, pilose or glabrous. Stipules reniform, large, margin serrate; petiole 2-7 mm, at first pubescent, glabrescent; leaf blade orbicular, ovate, or ovate-elliptic, 2-8 × 1.5-6 cm, abaxially whitish, glabrous, adaxially green, base rounded or shallowly cordate, margin serrulate, apex shortly acuminate to rounded; veins conspicuous abaxially. Flowering precocious or coetaneous. Catkins 3-4 cm; peduncle short, with caducous, scalelike leaflets or not; bracts russet or brown, oblong or oblong-spatulate, villous, apex obtuse or acute. Male flower: stamens 2, free, glabrous; anthers yellow. Fruiting catkin elongated. Female flower: gland oblong; ovary conical, glabrous; stipe ca. 0.5 mm; style conspicuous; stigma 2-cleft. Capsule brownish, 6-7 mm. Fl. May-Jun, fr. Jun-Jul.