Plants 20-50 cm tall. Stems erect, much branched; older branches gray-brown, bark dehiscent; annual branches yellow-brown, slender, easily broken. Leaves yellow-green, undeveloped, tuberculate, base narrowed, decurrent, apex obtuse. Spikes terete, slender, 10-30 × ca. 1.5 mm. Flower 1 per bract. Perianth top surface flattened in fruit, pentagonal, with 4 membranous teeth. Seed light red-brown, ovoid, 0.7-1 mm in diam., densely papillate. Fl. and fr. Jul-Sep.

Alkaline plains, salt-lake shores. Nei Mongol, Xinjiang [Mongolia].