Large tree, almost pyramidal when young, suckering moderately. Bark grey, fissured, peeling when young. Shoots somewhat angled, brown. Buds and very young shoots very viscid and balsam-scented, glabrous. Petioles to c. 9 cm long, terete, glabrous. Lamina to 13-(18) × 10 cm, usually deltoid-ovate or ovate, sometimes narrow-ovate, greenish white below, glabrous except for ciliolate margin, ± green when very young; veins green above; margin without translucent band, crenate-serrulate; base broad-cuneate, truncate or subcordate, usually glandless; apex acute to short-acuminate. Catkins ♂, pendulous, to c. 10 cm long. Rachis ± puberulent. Bracts 3-4 mm long excluding filiform teeth, hairy, whitish. cup-shaped disc 2-3 mm deep, oblique, glabrous. Stamens 30-90; anthers crimson.