The upper side of the leaf is dark green and very shiny, the underside is whitish and has a thick wax coating.

Male flowers have two stamens hairy at the base with initially purple-red, later yellow-discolored anthers.

[4] The natural distribution area is in Europe in Austria, Southern Germany, eastern Switzerland, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, and in Northern Italy.

[5] The smooth willow grows in the mountains in cool, moist forests on weakly acidic to alkaline, humus to sandy-loamy, nutrient-rich soils in sunny to light-shaded, cool and winter cold locations and is frost hardy .

[4] The distribution area is assigned to winter hardiness zone 4 with mean annual minimum temperatures of −34.4 to −28.9 °C (−30 to −20 °F).