Shrubs to 3 m tall. Branches grayish white; branchlets yellowish green or russet, glabrous, shiny. Buds conical-ovoid, 3-5 mm, apex yellow-green, obtuse. Petiole 4-7 mm, glabrous; leaf blade linear to linear-oblanceolate, broadest above middle, attenuate toward ends, 7-8 cm × 4-10 mm, both surfaces nearly uniformly colored, young leaves pilose, glabrescent, margin indistinctly loosely serrulate or subentire; midvein raised abaxially. Flowering coetaneous. Male catkin ellipsoid, 1-2.5 cm × 5-8 mm, subsessile; with 2 or 3 scalelike leaflets at base; rachis pubescent; bracts basally yellow-green, apically black or brown, oblong, both surfaces villous at base, margin ciliate and loosely villous, apex obtuse. Male flower: gland 1, adaxial, terete or deltoid-ovate; stamens 2; filaments coadnate at first, later distinct distally, glabrous; anthers red. Female catkin 1-1.5 × 0.6-0.8 cm, subsessile; bracts similar to those of male catkin. Female flower: glands 2, yellowish, abaxial gland usually very small, 3-lobed, rarely entire, adaxial gland as in male; ovary ovoid, glabrous; style ca. as long as ovary; stigma brown, 2-or 3-lobed. Fl. Apr-May.
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