Large tree to c. 30 m high, with spreading branches, usually scarcely suckering. Bark grey, fissured. Shoots slightly angular when mature, yellowish grey. Winter buds and very young shoots viscid, glabrous. Young lvs not aromatic. Petiole of mature lvs to 9 cm long, flattened, glabrous. Lamina 5-10.5 × 4-11 cm, broad-deltoid or broad-ovate, reddish brown when young, glabrous except for margin, becoming wholly green; margin with narrow translucent band, crenate-serrate with curved glandular teeth, densely ciliolate when young; base truncate or subcordate, with 2 glands prominently or weakly developed on either side of petiole; apex acuminate. Catkins ♀, pendulous, mostly eventually 15-20 cm long. Rachis glabrous. Bracts 2-3 mm long excluding filiform lobes, glabrous, whitish. Cup-shaped disc 1-2 mm deep, glabrous; margin irregular. Ovary glabrous; stigmas mostly 3-lobed, irregular, large. Capsules containing abundant long white hairs.