Echinospermum heterocaryum Bunge; E. szovitsianum Boissier.

Stems usually single, erect, 10-25 cm tall. Leaves gray-green, linear, 1-3 cm × 1-2 mm. Pedicel to 1.2 cm in fruit; bracts linear. Flowers pedicellate. Calyx lobes linear, ca. 2.5 mm, slightly enlarged in fruit, pubescent. Corolla blue-purple, somewhat longer than calyx; tube ca. as long as limb, with 5 longitudinal keels outside; throat distinctly constricted, appendages ca. 0.4 mm; lobes of limb ovate-lanceolate, apex obtuse. Stamens inserted at middle of corolla tube; anthers ovate, ca. 0.4 mm. Style ca. 0.6 mm. Nutlets narrowly ovate, 5-6 mm; disc with 1 row of glochids along margin, tuberculate at middle. Fl. and fr. Apr-Jun.

Deserts. C and W Xinjiang [Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan; SW Asia].