General: Dioecious shrubs or trees, 1-8 m tall, not colonial; branches erect, flexible at base; twigs yellow- to red-brown, densely hairy.
Leaves: Alternate, simple, elliptic to lance- or egg-shaped, 3-12 cm long, 1.7-5 cm wide, lower surface very densely silky, satiny, or woolly, hairs white, upper surface dull, sparsely long soft-hairy to nearly smooth, margins entire or toothed, bases pointed, tips rounded to pointed; leaf stalks without glandular dots at top; stipules leaflike or rudimentary.
Flowers: Unisexual, lacking sepals and petals, borne in catkins which flower as leaves emerge or just before them, the catkins slender to stout, on leafy twigs; floral bracts pale or dark, hairs straight or wavy; stamens 1; ovaries 1, hairy; styles 0.4-0.8 mm long.
Fruits: Capsules which split open to release the seeds, each of which is surrounded by a tuft of hairs; stalks 0.4-1.4 mm long.
Moist to mesic thickets, floodplains, lakeshores, avalanche tracks, clearings and forest margins in the lowland and montane zones; common in S BC south of 56degreeN, especially W of the Coast-Cascade Mountains, infrequent northward; N to S AK, E to AB and S to MT, ID and CA.
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