盐桦 yan hua

Shrubs to 3 m tall; bark grayish brown. Branches brown; branchlets densely pubescent and resinous glandular. Petiole slender, ca. 1 cm, densely pubescent; leaf blade ovate, rarely ovate-rhombic, 2.5-4.5 × 1.2-3 cm, abaxially sparsely resinous punctate and pubescent, adaxially glabrous, base subrounded, broadly cuneate, or cuneate, margin irregularly and doubly mucronate serrate, apex acuminate or acute; lateral veins 6 or 7 on each side of midvein. Female inflorescence pendulous, oblong, 2-3 × 1-1.2 cm; peduncle 5-8 mm, densely pubescent; bracts ca. 7 mm, densely pubescent and ciliate, 3-lobed, middle lobe triangular, lateral lobes horizontal or recurved, oblong-ovate, ca. as long as middle lobe. Nutlet ovate, ca. 2 × 1.5 mm, sparsely pubescent, with membranous wings 1.5-2 × as wide as nutlet. Fl. Jun-Jul, fr. Jul-Aug.

* Saline soils; circa 1500 m. N Xinjiang (Altay Xian)

An endangered species. A. K. Skvortsov believes it is probably a variety of Betula microphylla.