小药猪毛菜 xiao yao zhu mao cai

Herbs annual, 20-80 cm tall. Stem erect, much branched; branches obliquely spreading, white, densely pilose, rarely villous. Leaves gray-green, semiterete, 1-1.5 cm × 1.5-2 mm, villous, often deciduous, base slightly expanded, not decurrent, apex obtuse. Inflorescence spicate-paniculate; bracts broadly ovate, margin membranous; bractlets suborbicular, shorter than perianth. Perianth (including wings) 5-7 mm in diam. in fruit; segments narrowly ovate, herbaceous, abaxially winged from distal middle part in fruit, margin membranous, sparsely ciliate; portion of segment above wing connivent with others, tightly appressed to utricle, margin membranous, ciliate; 3 wings reniform, membranous, with numerous fine veins; other 2 wings obovate, smaller. Anthers ca. 0.5 mm. Stigmas filiform, nearly equaling style. Seed horizontal. Fl. Jul-Sep, fr. Sep-Oct.

Deserts, sandy areas. S Xinjiang [C Asia].

Freitag and Rilke (in Fl. Iranica) considered this taxon to be conspecific with Salsola nitraria. They indicated that forms with smaller anthers and smaller utricles are common in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and S Iran, and plants with sparsely hairy perianth segments occur scattered all over the distributional area.