Plants to 20 m. Branchlets, leaf blades, and petioles usually densely hairy, hairs (soft) yellowish. Neoformed leaves: blade rhombic-ovate, longer than wide, base cuneate or truncate, apex long-acuminate. Capsules 5-8(-10) mm.

Flowering Feb-Apr; fruiting Apr-Jun. Stream banks, canyons, seeps, springs, pools, moist soils; 800-2400 m; Tex.; Mexico (Chihuahua, Coahuila, Mexico, Nuevo León, Puebla).

Subspecies mesetae forms groves and local patches along major streams, otherwise primarily in arroyos and canyons in foothills, and also is commonly planted near ranches and in towns. It intergrades with subsp. fremontii along a line from southeastern Arizona south along the boundary between Chihuahua and Sonora.