白茎盐生草 bai jing yan sheng cao

Micropeplis arachnoidea (Moquin-Tandon) Bunge; Salsola aptera Handel-Mazzetti.

Plants 10-40 cm tall. Branches alternate, gray-white, arachnoid hairy when young, later glabescent. Leaves 3-10 × 1.5-2 mm, apex obtuse, sometimes mucronate. Flowers usually 2 or 3 per glomerule; bractlets ovate, margin membranous. Perianth segments broadly lanceolate, membranous; abaxial wing semiorbicular, subequal, pellucid membranous, distinctly veined. Stamens 5; filaments narrowly linear. Seed horizontal, 1-1.5 mm in diam. Fl. and fr. Jul-Aug.

Arid slopes, sandy places, riversides. Gansu, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Xinjiang [C Asia].

Local people burn the plants to obtain soda for cooking.