Herbs annual, large. Stem erect, stout, woody, brown to gray-brown, somewhat smooth, base to 1.5 cm in diam.; branches obliquely spreading, rigid; branchlets slender, somewhat curved. Leaves subhorizontal, linear, terete, 1-1.5 cm × 1.5-2 mm, base attenuate, apex subobtuse or acute. Glomerules axillary, densely numerous flowered. Flowers bisexual and female. Perianth green, parted to below middle; segments narrowly oblong, usually unequal, 3-winged, abaxially fleshy near apex in fruit, margin membranous, apex cucullate. Stamens 5; filaments not exserted, filiform; anthers broadly ovate to shortly oblong, ca. 0.5 mm. Ovary ovoid; style very short; stigmas 3, sometimes 4 or 5, usually exserted, black, plumose. Pericarp membranous, free from seed. Seed vertical, red-brown to black, obliquely ovoid, ca. 1.1 × 0.9 mm, somewhat reticulate lineate.

Suaeda rigida may be a synonym of S. turkestanica Litvinov.

* Under Populus trees by desert streams. S Xinjiang.