Anabasis florida M. Bieb., Fl. Taur. Cauc. 1: 190. 1808; Salsola florida (M. Bieb.) Poir., Encycl. Meth. Bot.. Suppl. 5: 191. 1817; Anabasis cinerea (Moq.) Moq. in DC., Prodr. 13(2): 214. 1849; Haloxylon floridum Fenzl in Ledeb., Fl. Ross. 3(2): 819. 1851.

Annual, up to 50 cm high, glabrous, divaricately branched from base, with whitish stems and opposite branches, flowering almost throughout. Leaves fleshy glabrous, obtuse, terete, the lower mostly subarcuately recurved; the upper dilated at base, 5-10 x (2-) 3-4 mm, with a tuft of hairs and solitary floret in the axils. Perianth segments oblong-ovate, mostly 2-lobed at the summit, winged in fruit; wings rounded-obovate, narrowing towards base, often rosy-red; fruit c. 2 mm in diam., concave at the top, dome-shaped below.

Fl. Per.: July-Sept.

Type: Described from Armenia, Kura river valley, F.A.Marschall von Bieberstein (LE).

S. rosmarinus Ehrenb. ex Boiss., a shrub with an up to 4 cm thick stem at base, terminal inflorescences and narrower but longer, clavate leaves, may also occur here; it grows in Iran and Afghanistan; Distribution: Armenian Kurdistan, Iran and Pakistan (Baluchistan.