Trees small. Branchlets yellowish brown when young, becoming purplish brown or brown, pubescent, becoming subglabrous. Petiole 3-4 mm, pilose; leaf blade lanceolate, 5-8 × 1.2-1.8 cm, abaxially grayish white, pilose when young, when mature subglabrous or pilose, usually pilose along veins, adaxially green, base cuneate, margin serrulate, rarely nearly entire, apex acuminate. Male catkin 1.5-3 cm; peduncle 0.8-1.5 cm, with 2 or 3 leaflets; bracts ovate-oblong, abaxially glabrous, adaxially pilose at base. Male flower: stamens 2, distinct, ca. 4 × as long as bracts; filaments glabrous; anthers yellow. Female catkin 2-2.5 cm, 6-12 cm in fruit; bracts long ovate, both surfaces and margin pilose, sometimes apex glabrous, 1/3-2/3 as long as ovary, apex obtuse or subrounded. Female flower: adaxial gland linear-oblong or oblong; ovary conical, densely downy, sessile or subsessile; style long, 2-cleft distally; stigma 2-cleft. Fl. May, fr. Jun.