沙木蓼 sha mu liao

Atraphaxis bracteata var. angustifolia Losinskaja; A. bracteata var. latifolia H. C. Fu & M. H. Zhao.

Shrubs 1-1.5 m tall. Stem erect, light brown, stout, glabrous; woody branches inclined-spreading, brown, much branched, smooth and glabrous, apex with leaves and flowers. Petiole very short, 1.5-3 mm, glabrous; leaf blade oblong, elliptic, or lanceolate on branchlets of current year, 1.5-3.5 × 0.8-2 cm, leathery, both surfaces glabrous, base rounded or broadly wedge-form, margin slightly undulate, apex obtuse, with a short point; ocrea cylindric, 6-8 mm, membranous, oblique in upper part and cleft into 2 sharp teeth. Racemes terminal on branchlets of current year; bracts lanceolate, ca. 4 mm, membranous, with brown midvein, 2- or 3-flowered. Pedicel ca. 4 mm, jointed at above portion of pedicel. Tepals 5, green-white or pink; outer tepals spreading in fruit, reniform-orbicular, ca. 4 × 6 mm, prominently reticulate-veined; inner tepals ovate, unequal, 7-8 mm in diam., prominently reticulated-veined, margin undulate. Achenes dark brown, shiny, ovoid-trigonous, ca. 5 mm, smooth. Fl. and fr. Jun-Aug.

Semimobile to stable sand dunes; 100-1500 m. Gansu, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Xinjiang [Mongolia].