Tree to 14 m or more high with a short single trunk, bark pale grey-brown, shallowly fissured with age; upper branches, twigs and shoots strongly weeping, strongly contorted-flexuose; twigs green to dark greenish-brown, at first densely villous, soon glabrous and lustrous; buds at first villous, soon glabrous and lustrous. Leaves lanceolate, 8–13 cm long, 1–2.5 cm wide, strongly contorted, finally glabrous, deep green and lustrous above, glaucescent or glaucous below; apex long-acuminate; base more or less cuneate; margins shortly and regularly toothed; stipules caducous, auriculate-acuminate, to 12 mm long, glandular-toothed and with a scattering of glands over upper surfaces, strongly twisted. Female plants only known; catkins c. cylindric, 1–2 cm long, dense-flowered, erect or spreading on short leafy lateral shoots, shortly pedunculate; catkin-scales, 2–2.5 mm long, pale yellow-green; ovary sessile, flask-shaped, shorter than catkin-scales; catkins lengthening slightly and ovaries developing to release aborted seed. Flowers Aug.–Oct.
VVP, GipP, OtP, WaP, Gold, CVU, HSF, HNF. Also naturalised WA, SA, NSW, ACT, Tas. A garden cultivar of a species indigenous in China. A garden cultivar of a species indigenous in China. Widely cultivated for ornament; sparingly naturalized vegetatively in Victoria (e.g. Ballarat, Merri Creek, Northcote, Tambo River) but becoming common around Albury (New South Wales) on the banks of the Murray River and probably also nearby in Victoria. Overseas it hybridizes with other willows (e.g. S. alba, S. ×sepulcralis); hybrids are likely to appear in Victoria where male subgenus Salix taxa occur.
