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Deciduous shrub or small tree 2–10 m. high, much-branched; branches spreading and pendulous, rather brittle. Woody stems dark red-brown or black, shallowly longitudinally furrowed, glabrous or more rarely with short fine light brown ± erect hairs and few inconspicuous small pale lenticels; young stems lighter, often densely short-hairy. Leaves alternate, 11–15 x 2–3.5 cm., narrowly- to linear-elliptic, on juvenile or late season non-flowering growth, and 2–8(12) x 0.5–1.5 cm., linear-obovate sometimes linear-elliptic on mature growth; apex acute sometimes acuminate, mucronate; base cuneate, margin subentire to crenate, serrate or biserrate; lamina chartaceous, markedly discolorous, midgreen above and pale usually glaucous beneath, glabrous or sparsely to densely hairy on midrib and sometimes both surfaces; primary veins often reddish, rather indistinct, 7–13 pairs arching and joining near the margin, often with intermediate shorter finer veins, reticulate venation prominulous above hardly visible beneath; petiole 3–15 mm. long often reddish, glabrous or sparsely to densely hairy as on stem. Stipules minute, suborbicular, 0.2–0.3 x 0.4 mm., irregularly 3-lobed, soon caducous. Catkins terminal on short axillary branches. Male inflorescence 3–9 cm. long, axis fairly stout with abundant long fine tangled hairs. Male flowers (20) 40 or more, spirally arranged, sessile, each subtended by an ovate densely long-hairy greenish-yellow bract 1.5–2.5 mm. long with a rounded or 3-toothed apex; disk divided into 2 unequal, fleshy, ± ovoid, entire or irregularly-lobed glands, 0.7–1.1 mm. long; stamens (5)6–8, filaments 3–5.5 mm. long, hairy mainly in the lower half, anthers rather shortly oblong, 0.2–0.5 x 0.3–0.5 mm. Female inflorescence 1.5–8 cm. long; flowers 15–30 (or more), each subtended by a persistent ovate or obovate acute bract 2–3.5 mm. long, pubescent as in male but more sparsely so on upper surface; disk a minute, usually 5-lobed, fleshy ± horseshoe-shaped, almost cup-like gland surrounding the stipe base; stipe 0.5–1.5 mm. long, glabrous; ovary 2–2.5 mm. long, ovoid; style 0.5–1 mm. long; stigmas 0.3 mm. long, shortly bilobed, ± glabrous. Mature capsule ovoid (3)4.5–6 x 2–2.5(3) mm. with stipe 0.5–3.5 mm. long, glabrous; splitting into 2 valves along longitudinal furrows. Seed 0.6–1.4 mm. long, ovoid, with a large tuft of long fine white hairs ± twice the seed in length.