碱蓬 jian peng

Schoberia glauca Bunge, Enum. Pl. China Bor. 56. 1833; Chenopodina glauca (Bunge) Moquin-Tandon; Salsola asparagoides Miquel; Suaeda asparagoides (Miquel) Makino; Suaeda stauntonii Moquin-Tandon.

Herbs annual, to 1 m tall. Stem erect, much branched above, light green, stout, ribbed; branches ascending or oblique, long, slender. Leaves gray-green, filiform-linear, slightly upcurved, semiterete, usually 1.5-5 × ca. 0.15 cm, glabrous, base contracted, apex subacute. Glomerules mostly inserted near base of leaves, 1-5-flowered. Flowers bisexual or sometimes some female. Perianth yellow-green, cupular, 1-1.5 mm (in bisexual flowers) or gray-green, subglobose, ca. 0.7 mm in diam., fleshy (in female flowers); segments ovate-triangular, enlarged in fruit, becoming black when dry, and together star-shaped, apex obtuse. Stamens 5; anthers obovate to oblong, ca. 0.9 mm. Stigmas 2, black-brown, slightly recurved. Utricle enclosed in perianth; pericarp membranous. Seed horizontal or oblique, black, sublustrous, lenticular, ca. 2 mm in diam., distinctly granular pitted, rim margin obtuse or acute; perisperm scant. Fl. and fr. Jul-Sep.

Saline-alkaline soils on beaches, wastelands, canal banks, field margins. Gansu, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Henan, Jiangsu, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Qinghai, Shandong, Shanxi, Xinjiang, Zhejiang [Japan, Korea, Mongolia, Russia (Far East, SE Siberia)].

The seed oil is used in industry.