Calligonum mongolicum Turczaninow var. gobicum Bunge ex Meisner in Candolle, Prodr. 14(1): 29. 1856; C. koslovii Losinskaja.

Shrubs 80-100 cm tall. Older branches long, straight. Herbaceous branchlets of current year gray-green; joints 1.5-3 cm. Leaves linear, 1-5 mm; ocrea united to leaf. Pedicel 2-3 mm, slender, jointed below middle. Flowers red. Tepals reflexed in fruit, broadly elliptic. Fruit broadly ovoid, 1.1-1.8 × 1-1.5 cm. Achenes oblong, not or slightly coiled; ribs obtuse, somewhat broad, deeply canaliculate; bristles in 2 rows at margin of ribs, sparse, ca. as long as or slightly longer than width of achenes, thick, breakable, slightly enlarged, 2-branched from middle or above. Fl. May-Jul; fr. Jun-Aug.

Mobile, semimobile, or stable sand dunes, deserts; 600-1600 m. Gansu, Nei Mongol, Xinjiang [SW Mongolia].