Echinospermum sinaicum de Candolle in A. de Candolle, Prodr. 10: 141. 1846; E. divaricatum Bunge, E. kotschyii Boissier.

Herbs annual. Stems erect or ascending, frequently branched from base, 15-40 cm tall, gray strigose or hispid, hairs white, tuberclelike at base. Basal leaves petiolate, oblong to oblong-lanceolate, 1.5-5 × 0.5-1.5 cm, sparsely short hispid, base attenuate, margin entire, apex obtuse; stem leaves sessile, shorter, narrower. Inflorescences elongated in fruit, usually 1- or 2-bracted. Fruiting pedicel erect, stout, 2-3 mm. Calyx lobes erect, oblong to linear, 1.5-2.5 mm, short hispid, hairs discoid at base, not enlarged in fruit, shorter than nutlets, subtending base of fruit. Corolla light blue, campanulate, ca. 3 mm; limb 2.5-3 mm wide. Gynobase surpassing nutlets by ca. 1 mm. Nutlets 2.5-3.5 mm; disc narrowly oblong, densely granulose, margin prominent becoming a narrow rib, with a single sparse row of extremely short glochids or sometimes finely tuberculate; lateral surfaces tuberculate.

Fields, waste places. Xinjiang [Afghanistan, NW India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan; NE Africa, SW Asia].