China Flora: Small tree or creeping shrub, up to 12 meters high. Bud scales are dark brown and glabrous. Young branches are densely pubescent. Leaves are leathery, ovate-elliptical or ovate, 2-2.5 cm long, with pointed apex and rounded base. When young, they are densely pubescent on the upper surface, densely yellow-brown silky hairs along the veins on the lower surface, with irregularly sharp double serrations, 9-21 pairs of lateral veins, concave on the upper surface; petiole 3-5 mm long, densely yellow pubescent. Female inflorescence is oblong-cylindrical, 1-2 cm long, with peduncle about 2 mm long, densely yellow pubescent; bracts are densely pubescent, middle lobe is ovate-oblong, with cilia growing in clusters at the top, and lateral lobes are ovate. Nutlets are nearly spherical, 2-2.5 mm long, sparsely pubescent, and wings are extremely narrow. Flowering period is May, and fruiting period is August.

It is native to southern Shaanxi, southeastern Gansu, Sichuan, northwestern Yunnan and southern Qinghai. It grows in thickets or cliffs on gravel slopes at an altitude of 1900-3100 meters.

[translated from Higher Plants of China]