密枝鹤虱 mi zhi he shi

Herbs annual, much branched, crowded, becoming globose, 4-8 cm tall, densely spreading white hispid. Basal leaves forming a rosette; leaf blade spatulate, ca. 1.5 mm, base attenuate into a long petiole, apex rounded; stem leaves linear-lanceolate, rarely spatulate, 2-2.5 cm × ca. 3 mm, spreading white hirsute, apex obtuse to mucronate. Inflorescences terminal, short, crowded; bracts linear-lanceolate. Fruiting pedicel ca. as long as calyx or slightly shorter, erect to somewhat ascending. Calyx 5-parted; lobes oblong-linear, ca. 2 mm, to 3.5 mm in fruit, subtending nutlets. Corolla light blue, campanulate, 2.5-3 mm; tube ca. as long as calyx; limb ca. 1 mm wide; lobes vertical, suborbicular. Gynobase ca. as long as nutlets. Fruit subglobose, 2.5-3 mm; nutlets narrowly ovoid; adaxially shiny, wrinkled; disc narrow, small, white granulose; margin thick, prominent, ca. 0.5 mm wide, usually revolute, with a single row of glochids 3 or 4 each side; basal pair of glochids ca. 1 mm, spreading outward, slightly widened at base.

Deserts, semideserts; ca. 1400 m. Xinjiang (Turpan Xian) [Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan].