Schoberia heterophylla Karelin & Kirilov, Bull. Soc. Imp. Naturalistes Moscou 14: 734. 1841; Breza heterophylla (Karelin & Kirilov) Moquin-Tandon; Lerchea heterophylla (Karelin & Kirilov) Kuntze.

Herbs annual, 20-50 cm tall. Stem erect or decumbent, much branched, terete, slightly ribbed; upper branches usually ascending. Leaves blue-gray-green, slightly glaucous, linear to filiform-linear, terete, 1-2 cm × 1-1.5 mm, base attenuate, apex subobtuse, awned; upper leaves shorter and broader. Glomerules axillary, usually 3-5-flowered. Flowers sessile, bisexual. Perianth green, depressed, 5-parted; segments triangular, base extending into a triangular wing, wing usually rounded, wings together appearing dish-shaped, 2.5-3.5 mm in diam. Anthers subglobose, minute, ca. 0.2 mm in diam. Style obscure; stigmas 2. Seed horizontal, black or red-brown, sublustrous, depressed ovoid or lenticular, ca. 1 mm in diam., distinctly pitted. Fl. and fr. Jul-Sep.

Strongly saline-alkaline places of Gobi desert, riversides, lake shores, sometimes in fields. W Gansu, Ningxia, N Qinghai, Xinjiang, Xizang [C Asia, SW Asia (Caucasus, Iran), SE Europe (Lower Volga region of Russia)].