Brachylepis eriopoda Schrenk, Bull. Cl. Phys.-Math. Acad. Imp. Sci. Saint-Pétersbourg 1: 360. 1843.

Herbs perennial, usually appearing hemispheric, 15-30 cm tall. Caudex densely white villous; annual branches numerous, borne on caudex, erect or decumbent, with obliquely spreading branches above, blue-green, slightly white-glaucous, with 10-15 internodes, smooth; internodes 4-angled, basal ones slightly terete, 0.5-3 cm. Leaves horizontal or slightly recurved, subulate or triangular, 2-5 mm, apex with a straight or recurved, aristate awn 2-5 mm. Flowers solitary in leaf axils, bisexual; bractlets green, shorter than perianth, abaxially fleshy, margin membranous, apex with an aristate awn. Perianth segments 2-3 mm, without winglike appendages in fruit, apex obtuse or acute; outer 3 segments broadly elliptic; inner 2 segments narrowly ovate. Disk lobes semiorbicular, slightly fleshy. Stigmas yellow-green. Utricle broadly ovoid to subglobose, compressed, 3-4 mm, protruding from perianth in fruit; pericarp yellow or orange-yellow, fleshy. Fl. and fr. Jun-Aug.

Gobi desert, deserts, arid slopes. N Xinjiang [Afghanistan, Mongolia; C Asia, SW Asia (Iran)].