Shrubs to 3 m tall. Branchlets yellowish brown, grayish white tomentose. Petiole 2-5 mm, tomentose; leaf blade broadly lanceolate, oblong, or ovate-oblong, 4.5-14 × 1-3 cm, abaxially dull silvery silky, adaxially dirty green or grayish green, tomentose, base broadly cuneate, margin entire or sinuolate, revolute, apex acuminate; veins brown, diverging from midvein at obtuse angle. Flowering precocious or coetaneous. Male catkin 2-4 cm, sessile; rachis villous; bracts brown or nearly black, oblong, apex obtuse or acute. Male flower: adaxial gland linear, 0.5-1.5 mm; stamens 2, free, glabrous. Female catkin 3-4 cm, elongated in fruit. Female flower: ovary long conical, 5-6 mm, densely gray tomentose, sessile; style 0.8-1.5 mm, longer than 2-cleft stigma. Fl. Apr, fr. May. 2n = 38