海乳草 hai ru cao

Plants 3--25 cm tall. Rootstock with scalelike, submembranous leaves. Stems erect or procumbent at base, fleshy, simple or branched. Leaf blade linear to narrowly elliptic-oblong or subspatulate, 4--15 X 1.5--3.5(--5) mm, nearly fleshy, base cuneate, margin entire, apex obtuse to acute. Pedicel 0.1--0.7(--1.5) mm. Flowers in axils of upper leaves. Calyx white or pink, 3--5 mm; lobes obovate-oblong, 1.5--2 mm wide, apex rounded. Stamens slightly shorter than calyx lobes. Ovary glandular punctate on upper 1/2; style ca. as long as stamens. Capsule 2.5--3 mm in diam. Fl. Jun. 2n = 30.

Beaches, muddy shallows, saline soils, inland salt marshes. Anhui, Gansu, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Shandong, Sichuan, Xinjiang, Xizang [Japan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan; Europe, North America, temperate and arctic regions of northern hemisphere].