散枝猪毛菜 san zhi zhu mao cai

Climacoptera brachiata (Pallas) Botschantzev.

Herbs annual, 10-30 cm tall. Stem erect, branched from base; branches opposite, sometimes upper ones alternate; branchlets spreading, thin, hard, densely pubescent mixed with sparse, long, jointed hairs. Leaves opposite, semiterete, 1.5-2 cm × 2-2.5 mm, densely pubescent mixed with sparse, long hairs, base slightly expanded, not decurrent, apex mucronate. Inflorescence spikelike; bracts leaflike, longer than bractlets, base expanded; bractlets broadly lanceolate, densely pubescent mixed with sparse, long hairs, margin broadly membranous at base, apex acute. Perianth (including wings) 10-13 mm in diam. in fruit; segments narrowly lanceolate, hardened in fruit, abaxially winged from proximal middle part, densely pubescent, margin membranous; portion of segment above wing connivent with others into a long, thin cone, narrowly lanceolate, subleathery, densely pubescent; 3 wings yellow-brown or purple-brown, reniform; other 2 wings obovate, smaller. Anther appendage cochleate. Style very short; stigmas subulate, 7-8 × as long as style. Seed vertical. Fl. Jul-Aug, fr. Sep-Oct.

Gobi desert, slopes, ravines. N Xinjiang [Mongolia, Russia (SW Siberia); C Asia, SW Asia (Caucasus), SE Europe].