扭果虫实 niu guo chong shi

Plants 30-40 cm tall. Stem erect, much branched mostly from upper middle part. Leaves linear, 4-5 cm × ca. 2 mm, 1-veined, base attenuate, apex acuminate, mucronate. Spikelike inflorescence clavate, distally crowded, slightly arcuate, usually 5-6 cm × ca. 1 cm wide at widest point; lower bracts linear-lanceolate to lanceolate, 3-6 × as long as utricle, narrower than utricle, margin membranous only on basal bracts, apex acuminate, mucronate; upper bracts narrowly to broadly ovate, wider than utricle, 3-veined, margin membranous, apex acute to acuminate, mucronate. Perianth segment 1, elliptic, apex irregularly crenate or lacerate. Stamen 1, exserted from perianth. Utricle black-brown, with dark spots, sublustrous, oblong-obovate, 3.5-4 × 2.5-3 mm, glabrous, base cordate, apex emarginate; wing lighter colored than body, usually 1/3-1/2 as wide as body, margin strongly undulate or crisped; beak apex ca. 1/3 as long as beak. Fl. and fr. Jul-Sep.

* Sandy meadows. Heilongjiang.

One of us (Mosyakin) notes that Corispermum retortum is probably just a deviant form of a species of C. subsect. Pallasiana Mosyakin, perhaps C. elongatum s.l. Occasional plants with unusually dark and undulate-winged utricles rarely occur in populations of other representatives of that subsection, even among European plants of C. pallasii Steven (introduced in Europe, native to Siberia). The little-known plant C. ulopterum Fenzl (from the shores of Lake Baikal in Russia), also characterized by dark utricles and strongly undulate-crisped wings, is probably a local form or variety of C. redowskii Fischer ex Steven.