额河木蓼 e he mu liao

Shrubs 1-1.5 m tall. Stem stout, tortuous, glabrous, with gray-white bark; epidermis splitting longitudinally; woody branches spreading, spiny, apex without leaves; herbaceous branchlets of current year slender, glabrous, apex with leaves or flowers. Leaves fascicled, linear or lanceolate, usually sickle-curved, 1.5-3 cm × 1-3 mm, both surfaces glabrous, midvein prominent, base gradually narrowing into petiole, margin revolute, apex acuminate; ocrea white, cylindric, 5-7 mm, membranous, pellucid, upper part cleft into 2 sharp teeth; veins 2, prominent. Pedicel 5-10 mm, slender, jointed at above 1/3. Flowers fewer in racemes at apices of branchlets of current year. Tepals 5, light green, with white or pink margins; outer tepals reflexed, smaller, ca. 1/2 as long as above joint portion of pedicel; inner tepals ovate, slightly unequal, 5-6 × 6-7 mm, prominently reticulate veined. Achenes yellow-brown, shiny, ovoid, ca. 5 mm, smooth. Fl. and fr. May-Jun.

* Mobile sand dunes; 300-400 m. N Xinjiang (Altay).