Shrub or small tree to 1-6-(c. 10) m high; bark grey, ± smooth; habit dense and bushy. Shoots green or olive-green, soon glabrous, not brittle, not striated below bark. Buds shining brown, glabrous. Petiole 5-17 mm long. Lamina 4-11 × 1.5-4 cm, oblong-lanceolate or oblong-obovate, glaucous below, sericeous beneath at first but soon glabrous, bitter to taste, glandular-serrulate; angle between midrib and lateral veins > 45°; apex rounded to acute. Stipules small, broad, denticulate. Catkins mostly ♀, rarely ♂, produced on short leafy shoots slightly before or as lvs emerge; rachis villous. ♂ catkins broad-cylindric, erect to spreading; stamens 2; filaments hairy towards base. ♀ catkins to 5 cm long at anthesis, broadly cylindric. Bracts 1.5-2 mm long, ± obovate, black in upper ?-3/4, with dense tuft of long silky hairs; apex rounded to truncate. Gland 1, 0.6-0.8 mm long, ± elliptic-oblong or broadly linear. Ovary glabrous, stalked.