Brachylepis elatior C. A. Meyer, Bull. Sci. Acad. Imp. Sci. Saint-Pétersbourg 8: 341. 1840; Anabasis korovinii Iljin; A. phyllophora Karelin & Kirilov.

Subshrubs 15-30 cm tall. Woody stem much branched, gray-brown to gray-white; annual branches erect or slightly obliquely spreading, with 10-20 internodes, with short, obliquely spreading branches above; internodes terete or upper ones slightly compressed, usually 1-1.5 cm × 1.5-3 mm. Leaf apex subobtuse, with a short, pellucid, acicular awn; lower and middle leaves spreading or recurved, subulate, ca. 3 mm; upper leaves appressed against branch, scale-like, ca. 2 mm. Flowers axillary, solitary on upper part of branches and forming a short spike; bractlet apex subacute, without an acicular awn. Perianth segments membranous, proximally slightly thickened; outer 3 segments broadly ovate, abaxially with a developed, transverse wing; inner 2 segments narrower, without a wing or sometimes with a narrow wing in fruit; wing usually erect, yellow-white or pink, reniform. Disk lobes linear, apex pectinate. Ovary ovoid, glabrous; stigmas recurved, adaxially finely papillate. Utricle ovoid to broadly so, 2-3 mm; pericarp yellow-brown or pink, fleshy. Fl. and fr. Jul-Oct.

Gobi desert, saline soils in deserts, sunny slopes. N Xinjiang [Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Russia (W Siberia)].