A small tree with a creamy pink, peeling bark; twigs glabrous, glandular. Leaves of firm texture, ovate to rhombic ovate, acuminate, broad-cuneate at the base. Fruiting catkins erect, about [3/4] in. long and [1/4] in. or slightly more wide, shortly stalked; bracts slightly ciliate, the lateral lobes rounded, shorter than the narrow mid-lobe; nutlets with wings about equal to the body.
An ally of B. pendula with a wide range in the mountains of central Asia, described in 1869. It is now in cultivation from seeds brought home by John Whitehead in 1979 (The Garden (Journ. R.H.S), Vol. 106 (1981), p. 432).