Shrub to c. 2 m high, forming dense thickets; bark smooth. Shoots white-villous when young, not brittle, lacking striations below bark. Buds densely silky hairy. Petiole 5-10 mm long. Lamina 5-10 × 1-3 cm, elliptic or lanceolate-elliptic, greyish and densely clothed in appressed hairs beneath, eventually glabrous above excluding midrib, not bitter to taste, glandular-serrulate; lateral veins often > 15, close and prominent; angle between midrib and lateral veins < 45°; apex acute. Stipules to 1.5 cm long, obliquely oblong-ovate, hairy, at least below, glandular-serrulate, persistent. Catkins ♂, appearing before lvs, subsessile, 3-4 cm long, broad-cylindric, ± erect; rachis hairy. Bracts c. 2.5 mm long, rhombic to obovate, black in upper part, densely silky hairy, acuminate. Gland 1, c. 1 mm long, ± linear. Stamen 1, glabrous.