Salsola chinensis Gandoger.

Herbs annual, 20-100 cm tall. Stem branched from base; branches alternate, spreading, green, white or purple-red striate, hispid or subglabrous. Leaves spreading or slightly curved, filiform-terete, 2-5 cm × 0.5-1.5 mm, hispid, base slightly expanded, decurrent, margin membranous, apex spinose mucronate. Inflorescence spikelike; bracts and bractlets tightly appressed to rachis; bracts ovate, abaxially longitudinally keeled, margin membranous, apex spinose mucronate; bractlets narrowly lanceolate, apex spinose mucronate. Perianth segments ovate-lanceolate, membranous, hardened in fruit, abaxially crested; portion of segment above crest inflexed, with others forming a plane surface tightly appressed to utricle or sometimes connivent distally into a small cone, subleathery, apex acute, membranous. Anthers 1-1.5 mm. Stigmas filiform, 1.5-2 × as long as style. Seed horizontal or oblique. Fl. Jul-Sep, fr. Sep-Oct.

This plant is used in Chinese medicine to reduce blood pressure.

Around farm houses, roadsides, waste places. Anhui, Gansu, Guizhou, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Henan, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jilin, Liaoning, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanxi, Sichuan, Xinjiang, Xizang, Yunnan [Korea, Mongolia, Pakistan, Russia; C Asia; naturalized in C and W Europe and North America].