Shrubs or trees. Branchlets brown or russet, juvenile branchlets stout, densely dirty pubescent or tomentose, glabrescent. Buds dirty brown, ovoid, pilose. Petiole 5-7 mm, pubescent or
tomentose; leaf blade elliptic or oblong-elliptic, 4-6.5 × 1.8-2.5 cm, abaxially greenish or slightly white, pubescent along midvein, glabrous, villous when young, glabrescent, adaxially
green, both ends acute or base cuneate-rounded, margin entire; lateral veins 10-15 on each side of midvein. Flowering precocious or coetaneous. Male catkin, yellowish green or brown
distally, cylindric 3-3.5 cm × 8-10 mm; peduncle 5-10 mm, with 2-4 leaflets ca. 1 cm; bracts ovate or oblong-ovate, ca. 2 mm, villous or adaxially subglabrous. Male flower: gland
adaxial; stamens 2; filaments distinct or partly connate, to 5 mm, glabrous; anthers yellow. Female catkin 4-6 cm × 6-8 mm; bracts as in male catkin. Female flower: adaxial gland oblong,
slightly shorter than stipe; ovary ovoid-cylindric to conical, 2-3.5 mm, glabrous or adaxially slightly pubescent, stipitate; style conspicuous; stigma ovate, sometimes divided. Capsule
6-7 mm. Fl. Mar-Apr, fr. May.
