星花碱蓬 xing hua jian peng

Herbs annual, 20-80 cm tall. Stem prostrate or decumbent, usually much branched, somewhat ribbed. Leaves subsessile, linear, slightly curved, semiterete, 0.5-1 cm × ca. 1 mm, base slightly depressed, apex acute or obtuse, awned; leaves of upper stem and branches lanceolate to ovate, shorter, abaxially convex, adaxially plane. Glomerules axillary, usually 2-5-flowered. Flowers bisexual. Perianth depressed, 5-parted, somewhat fleshy; segments extended at base into a transverse, obtusely triangular, equal wing, wings together appearing star-shaped, 1.5-2 mm in diam. Stamens 5; filaments not exserted, filiform; anthers hemispheric, ca. 0.5 mm in diam. Style obscure; stigmas 2, minute. Pericarp free from seed. Seed horizontal, lenticular, 0.9-1 mm in diam.; testa red-brown to black, thinly leathery or membranous, distinctly pitted, rim margin obtuse. Fl. and fr. Jul-Sep.

* Inter-dunes, saline-alkaline wastelands, lake shores, canal banks; 900-2200 m. W Gansu, Xinjiang.