多枝柽柳 duo zhi cheng liu

Shrubs or small trees, 1-3(-6) m tall. Old branches dark gray; growing branches of current year ascending, reddish or orange-yellow, long. Leaves of growing branches lanceolate, semiamplexicaul, slightly decurrent; those of vegetative branches broadly ovate-orbicular or triangular-cordate, 2-5 mm, base decurrent, nearly amplexicaul, apex acute. Racemes terminal on branches of current year, clustered into terminal panicles, (0.5-)3-5(-8) cm × 3-5 mm; peduncles 2-10 mm; bracts lanceolate, ovate-lanceolate, linear-subulate, or ovate-oblong, 1.5-2(-2.8) mm, equaling or exceeding calyx, apex acuminate. Pedicels 0.5-0.7 mm, shorter than or ca. as long as calyx. Flowers 5-merous. Calyx 0.5-1 mm; sepals broadly elliptic-ovate or ovate, apex acuminate or obtuse; inner 3 wider than outer 2, 0.5-0.7 × 0.3-0.5 mm, margin narrowly membranous, irregularly dentate, not carinate. Petals pink or purple, obovate to broadly elliptic-obovate, 1-1.7 × 0.7-1 mm, ca. 1/3 longer than calyx, apex emarginate, ascending, contacting each other and forming a cup-shaped corolla, persistent in fruit. Disk 5-lobed; lobes emarginate at apex. Stamens 5, equaling or ca. 1.5 × exceeding corolla; filaments not dilated at base, inserted between disk lobes; anthers obtuse or with obtuse protrusions at apex. Ovary conic, triqueter; styles 3, clavate, 1/4-1/3 as long as ovary. Capsule triqueter, conic, 3-5 mm, 3-4 × as long as calyx. Fl. May-Sep. 2n = 24*.

Riversides, river valleys, sandy or clayey salty plains, sand dunes. Gansu, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Qinghai, Xinjiang, W Xizang [Afghanistan, Mongolia; C and SW Asia, E Europe].