Plants 20-40 cm tall. Stems branched from base, branches suberect, gray-brown, annual ones yellow-green. Leaves ovate, slightly adaxially curved, 1.5-3 × 1-1.5 mm, base decurrent and semiamplexicaul, apex acute. Spikes terminal on upper branches, 5-15 × 2-3 mm. Flowers densely arranged, 3 per bract. Perianth top surface pentagonal in fruit, margin narrowly winged. Utricle subglobose; pericarp membranous. Seed light red-brown, subglobose, ca. 1 mm in diam., papillate. Fl. and fr. Jul-Sep.

Hills, slopes, margins of alluvial fans, salt-lake shores, alkaline soils. Gansu, Hebei, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Xinjiang [Mongolia].