猪毛菜 zhu mao cai

Salsola chinensis Gandoger.

Herbs annual, 20-100 cm tall. Stem branched from base; branches alternate, spreading, green, white or purple-red striate, hispid or subglabrous. Leaves spreading or slightly curved, filiform-terete, 2-5 cm × 0.5-1.5 mm, hispid, base slightly expanded, decurrent, margin membranous, apex spinose mucronate. Inflorescence spikelike; bracts and bractlets tightly appressed to rachis; bracts ovate, abaxially longitudinally keeled, margin membranous, apex spinose mucronate; bractlets narrowly lanceolate, apex spinose mucronate. Perianth segments ovate-lanceolate, membranous, hardened in fruit, abaxially crested; portion of segment above crest inflexed, with others forming a plane surface tightly appressed to utricle or sometimes connivent distally into a small cone, subleathery, apex acute, membranous. Anthers 1-1.5 mm. Stigmas filiform, 1.5-2 × as long as style. Seed horizontal or oblique. Fl. Jul-Sep, fr. Sep-Oct.

Around farm houses, roadsides, waste places. Anhui, Gansu, Guizhou, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Henan, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jilin, Liaoning, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanxi, Sichuan, Xinjiang, Xizang, Yunnan [Korea, Mongolia, Pakistan, Russia; C Asia; naturalized in C and W Europe and North America].

This plant is used in Chinese medicine to reduce blood pressure.