阿拉善单刺蓬 a la shan dan ci peng

Herbs annual, 15-20 cm, pyramidal. Root pallid, usually curved, slender, terete. Stem erect, densely branched, slightly lustrous, terete, ribbed above, smooth; branches alternate, obliquely or subhorizontally spreading; lower branches 3-6 cm, with numerous branchlets; upper branches gradually becoming shorter and without branchlets. Leaves slightly spreading, yellow-green, acicular, straight or somewhat arcuate, 5-8 mm, glabrous, base ovate-triangular or broadly expanded ovate, mar-gin membranous. Flowers 2- or 3-clustered, or solitary; bractlets navicular, apex with a spine 2-4 mm. Perianth segment apex white, narrowly triangular, ca. 0.4 mm; perianth conic spine ca. 6.5 mm. Stamens 5; anthers ca. 0.5 mm, apex obscurely appendaged, anther sacs free in basal 1/5. Ovary minute; style filiform; stigmas exserted. Utricle 1-1.2 mm.

* Inter-dunes, margins of dune fields, alluvial fans. Gansu (Minqin), W Nei Mongol (Alxa Zuoqi).

The protologue cited the holotype from Alxa Zuoqi in “Ningxia,” although that locality is some 20 km to the west in Nei Mongol.