Suaeda physophora Pall.

Subshrubs usually 30-80 cm tall. Stems much branched; bark gray-brown, laciniate; annual branches erect or slightly decumbent, pallid. Leaves sessile, blue-gray-green, linear, usually slightly arcuate, semiterete, 3-6 cm × 2-3 mm, base slightly contracted, apex acute to acuminate. Glomerules 1-3-flowered, inserted in bract axils, forming a paniculate inflorescence at apex of dwarf branchlets. Flowers bisexual and female. Perianth subglobose, 5-lobed; segments ovate, incurved, unequal, not keeled, apex obtuse; fruiting perianth enclosing utricle, slightly red tinged, enlarged, appearing saccate, ca. 5 mm in diam. Anthers oblong, ca. 0.8 mm. Style very short; stigmas 2 or 3. Seed horizontal, depressed globose, ca. 3 mm in diam.; testa not lustrous, membranous; radicle not protruding. Fl. and fr. Jul-Sep.

Gobi desert, arid saline-alkaline slopes and alluvial plains. W Gansu, N Xinjiang [Russia (NE Caucasus, SE European part, W Siberia); C Asia].

Chenopodium physophorum (Pallas) Moquin-Tandon; Lerchea physophora (Pallas) Kuntze; Salsola physophora (Pallas) Schrader.