Shrubs ca. 50 cm tall, much branched, subglobose. Old branches gray or yellow-gray; branchlets of current year light green, with joints 2-3 cm. Leaves linear, 1-2 mm; ocrea united to leaf. Pedicel 2-4 mm, jointed at middle. Flowers 1-3, at leaf axil. Tepals reflexed in fruit, light red or white, broadly elliptic. Fruit subglobose, 10-12 cm in diam. Achenes narrowly ellipsoid or ovoid, 8-10 × 2-3 mm, slightly coiled, not prominently ribbed; bristles in 2 rows per rib, yellow-brown, slender, soft, not at base, free, secondarily 2- or 3-forked; apical branches erect, short. Fl. Jun, fr. Jul.

* Semimobile sand dunes; ca. 900 m. Xinjiang.