A branched annual up to 35 cm tall. Basal leaves petiolate, including petiole 20-35 x 5-10 m, oblanceolate to obspathulate, uppersurface glabrous or nearly so; lower appressedly hairy with suberect hairs. Cauline leaves sessile, smaller. Pedicel short, c. 1.5 mm long, ± erect, up to 3 mm in fruit. Calyx lobes oblong, hairy, c. 1.5 mm long, ovoid or narrowly so, margin of wing with usually uniseriate glochidiate appendages, ± contiguous with each other, 2-3 mm long; dorsal middle area narrow, keeled with small spinules; ventral and lateral sides minutely to culate. Style very short, hidden between nutlets.

Fl. Per.: April-May.

Type: Described from sands of Irtysh river, Ledebour s.n. (LE).

Distribution: URSS, Afghanistan, Pakistan, W. Tibet.

Hartmann (Bot. Jahrb. 85:341.1966) records " Lappula redowskii var. eu-redowskii” from Braldo vy., C. Karakorum, but I have not been able to verify this record.

A variable species throughout its geographical range in flower colour, leaf shape, peduncle length and fruit characters. Our plants generally are blue-flowered with a single row of marginal appendages. M. Popov (l.c.) has aptly summed up the species variability. Found in semi-desert and dry montainous areas up to 3600 m.