Shrubs usually to 1 m tall. Branchlets pinkish purple, tomentose when young, glabrescent. Petiole short; leaf blade usually oblong-oblanceolate or obovate-oblong, variable, ca. 1.5 cm × 4 mm, abaxially appressed sericeous when mature, rarely subglabrous, adaxially pilose, base cuneate or attenuate, rarely cuneate-rounded, margin entire or serrate, apex acute or obtuse. Flowering serotinous, rarely coetaneous. Male catkin 1.5-2.5 cm × 3-4 mm; peduncle short, with 1 or 2 leaflets; bracts elliptic-lanceolate, ca. 1/2 as long as filaments, abaxially villous. Male flower: gland 1, cylindric, to 1 mm; stamens 2; filaments connate throughout, glabrous; anthers yellow. Female catkin 1.5-2.5 cm × 7-8 mm, to 4 × 1-1.2 cm in fruit, pedunculate; bracts as in male catkin. Female flower: gland adaxial; ovary ovoid, densely downy, sessile; style indistinct or absent; stigma 2-cleft. Capsule narrowly ovate, to 4 mm. Fl. Apr-May or Jul-Aug.
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