Erect shrub or small tree 3- c. 12 m high; bark smooth or nearly so. Shoots grey or greenish, hairy for c. 2 years, not brittle, smooth with few short striations below the bark. Buds shining, deep brown, glabrous or somewhat hairy. Petiole mostly 5-10 mm long. Lamina 4-10 × 2.5-5.5 cm, usually broad-elliptic to elliptic-obovate, not bitter to taste, densely clothed in soft grey hairs beneath at first, the hairs much sparser at maturity, becoming nearly glabrous above except for persistently hairy midrib; margins undulate, sparingly glandular-serrulate; angle between midrib and veins > 45°; apex usually ± rounded, occasionally acute. Stipules small, < 5 mm long, broader than long. Catkins ♂, produced in abundance before lvs, 2-3-(3.5) cm long, ± erect, broad-oblong; rachis villous. Bracts 2-2.5 mm long, lanceolate-ovate to rhombic-ovate, black in upper 1/2, with dense silky tuft of hairs; apex obtuse to rounded. Gland 1, 0.5-0.7 mm long, rectangular, sometimes broadly so. Stamens 2-(3); filaments hairy towards base.