Large shrub or small tree; bark rather smooth; habit rather erect. Shoots brownish, densely clothed in dark hairs in the first year, flexible, with few raised striations below bark. Buds densely hairy, deep brown. Petiole to 1.5 cm long. Lamina 4-15 × 0.8-4 cm, broad-lanceolate to elliptic or ± obovate, grey and tomentose beneath at first, ± hairy when mature, not bitter to taste, with midrib drying pinkish brown, hairy or glabrate above when mature (except for densely hairy midrib), finely glandular-serrulate; angle between midrib and veins > 45°; apex slender, usually acute. Stipules much broader than long. Catkins ♀, appearing before lvs, 2.5-5.5 cm long, erect, ± cylindric; rachis ± villous. Bracts 2-3.5 mm long, ± obovate, black in upper part, silky hairy; apex obtuse or rounded. Gland 1, 0.5-0.8 mm long, ± oblong. Ovary sessile, white-villous.