Salix ×mollissima

Spreading shrub to 5 m high; bark greyish, smooth, sometimes flaking; twigs subglabrous or glabrescent, lustrous, olive-brown, often initially angled, moderately fragile; buds brown, puberulous. Leaves lanceolate or linear-lanceolate, (4–)8–13 cm long, 1–1.5 cm wide, at first pubescent, soon becoming glabrous, dark shining green above, paler below and puberulous; apex long acuminate; base narrowly cuneate; margins entire or minutely glandular-serrate; stipules persistent, asymmetrically subulate-lanceolate, margins finely serrate or entire, upper surface with scattered sessile glands. Catkins 3–4 cm long, produced on short leafy lateral shoots, spreading or erect; male catkins cylindric, c. 1 cm wide, sometimes with scattered female flowers; stamens 2 or 3, filaments free; female catkins narrowly cylindrical, up to c. 5 mm wide; catkin-scales shorter than ovary; ovary flask-shaped, stalked, pubescent, sometimes becoming sparsely hairy with age. Flowers spring.