Herbs annual, to 60 cm tall, glabrous. Stem prostrate, decumbent, or erect, light green, somewhat curved, terete, slightly ribbed; branches obliquely spreading, slightly curved, slender. Leaves sessile, linear, straight or lower ones slightly curved, semiterete or compressed, 0.3-2 cm × 0.5-2 mm, base somewhat contracted, apex obtuse or acute. Glomerules arranged into spikes on upper branches, usually 3-6-flowered. Flowers bisexual and female. Perianth depressed, 5-parted; segments unequal, abaxially extended and thickened, appearing unequally cornate, apex obtuse. Filaments slightly exserted, short; anthers yellow-white, subglobose, minute, 0.15-0.2 mm. Style obscure; stigmas 2. Utricle depressed globose; pericarp free from seed. Seed horizontal or oblique, lenticular, 1-1.5 mm in diam.; testa black, sublustrous, leathery, distinctly pitted, rim margin subobtuse. Fl. and fr. Aug-Sep.

Saline-alkaline deserts, lake shores, riversides. W Gansu, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, N Qinghai, Xinjiang, Xizang [Mongolia, Russia (S European part, S Siberia); C Asia, SE Europe (SE Ukraine)].