奇台沙拐枣 qi tai sha guai zao

Shrubs 50-90 cm tall, rarely 1-1.5 m tall, much long branched. Old branches yellow-gray or gray, much flexuous; herbaceous branchlets of current year jointed; joints 1-3 cm. Leaves linear, 2-6 mm; ocrea united to leaf. Pedicel 2-4 mm. Flowers 1-3, at leaf axil. Tepals reflexed in fruit, dark red, broadly elliptic. Fruit light yellow, yellow-brown, or red-brown, broadly ovoid, 1-2 × 1.2-2 cm. Achenes oblong, slightly coiled, not prominently ribbed; wings ca. 2-3 mm wide, nearly leathery, prominently veined; margin of wing irregularly lobate and gradually narrowing to bristles; bristles sparse or dense, flat, ca. as long as or longer than width of achenes, 2.5-3.5 × as long as width of wing, stiff, forked, apices short. Fl. May-Jun, fr. Jun-Jul. 2n = 18*, (24*).

* Sand dunes; 600-700 m. Xinjiang.