Tree to 20 m high (more in cultivation), columnar or fastigiate. Bark rough, fissured. Branchlets light grey. Young shoots glabrous or puberulent. Buds and very young lvs viscid, glabrous. Young lvs not aromatic. Petiole 1.5-6 cm long, compressed, sometimes puberulent when young. Lamina 2.5-9 × 2-11 cm, rhombic-deltoid to rhombic, glabrous, green above and below; margin with narrow translucent border, crenate or crenate-serrate; base truncate to cuneate, glandless; apex usually cuspidate or acuminate. Catkins ♂, pendulous, to 7 cm long; scales at base to c. 2.3 cm long. Rachis glabrous, white. Bracts strongly laciniate, 2-2.5 mm long excluding the subulate teeth, glabrous, white. Cup-shaped disc 2-3 mm deep, oblique, glabrous. Stamens 15-30; anthers light to deep crimson.