Salix sphaeronymphe Goerz

Shrubs or trees to 8 m tall. Branchlets reddish brown or purplish brown, thin; juvenile branchlets pilose, glabrescent. Stipules linear-lanceolate, small, pilose; petiole 1.5-5 mm, tomentose or subglabrous; leaf blade lanceolate, sometimes narrowly lanceolate, 3.5-5 × 1-1.5 cm, abaxially greenish, adaxially dull green or green, both surfaces downy when young, glabrescent except veins subglabrous, base cuneate to rounded, margin glandular serrate, apex acuminate or acute. Male catkin ca. 2 cm × 4-6 mm; peduncle with 2 or 3 leaflets; bracts obovate-orbicular, 1-1.5 mm, downy. Male flower: adaxial gland entire or 2- or 3-lobed, larger than abaxial gland; stamens 2, distinct, ca. 3 mm, villous at base; anthers yellow, elliptic. Female catkin 1-2.5(-3) cm × 2-3 mm, 2.5-4.5 cm × 7-9 mm in fruit; bracts brownish, obovate or suborbicular, ca. 1 mm, abaxially and marginally villous, adaxially pilose, glabrescent. Female flower: gland adaxial, rarely abaxial gland present; ovary ovoid, ca. 2 mm, white downy, sessile; style short, 2-lobed; stigma entire or 2-lobed. Capsule ovoid-conical, 3-4 mm; stipe short or absent. Fl. Apr-May, fr. May-Jun.

S Gansu, W Sichuan, E Xizang

* Along rivers and roadsides of mountain slopes; 2600-3700 m.