Tree or shrub to 20 m high; bark reddish brown to white, shedding readily, in sheets. Branchlets slender to stout, erect, usually velvety pubescent, sometimes glandular. Leaves broadly ovate, 3–7 cm long, 2–5 cm wide, upper surface glabrous or pubescent, blue-green, shiny or dull, lower surface pubescent, sometimes restricted to veins, without prominent glands; margins serrate; apex acute; base cuneate to truncate or cordate; lateral veins mostly 5–8. Female catkin cylindric, c. 2 cm long, c. 5 mm wide, sometimes pendulous; bracts c. 5 mm long, glabrous to puberulent, 3-lobed, lateral lobes rounded, equal to central lobe. Fruit elliptic, c. 2 mm long, wings equal to or slightly wider than nutlet.