Chenopodium salsum Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 1: 221. 1753; Chenopodina salsa (Linnaeus) Moquin-Tandon; Lerchea salsa (Linnaeus) Medikus; Salsola salsa (Linnaeus) Linnaeus; Schoberia salsa (Linnaeus) C. A. Meyer; Suaeda heteroptera Kitagawa; S. heteroptera var. tenuiramea P. Y. Fu & W. Wang; S. ussuriensis Iljin.

Herbs annual, green or purple-red, 20-80 cm tall. Stem erect, branching mostly above, yellow-brown, terete, somewhat ribbed, glabrous; branches spreading or oblique, slender. Leaves sessile, linear, semiterete, usually 1-2.5 cm × 1-2 mm, apex subobtuse or acute; upper leaves shorter. Glomerules axillary, usually 3-5-flowered, arranged into interrupted spikes on branches; bractlets ovate, margin subentire. Flowers bisexual and sometimes female. Perianth hemispheric, abaxially plane; segments ovate, somewhat fleshy, abaxially slightly thickened in fruit, sometimes base extended into a triangular or narrow, winglike process, margin membranous, apex obtuse. Anthers ovoid or oblong, 0.3-0.4 mm. Style obscure; stigmas 2, usually black-brown, papillate. Utricle enclosed in perianth; pericarp membranous, usually broken after ripening. Seed horizontal, black, sublustrous, lenticular or obliquely ovoid, 0.8-1.5 mm in diam., obscurely reticulate lineate, rim margin obtuse. Fl. and fr. Jul-Oct.

Saline and alkaline soils on beaches, lake shores. NW Gansu, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Jiangsu, Jilin, Liaoning, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Qinghai, N Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanxi, Xinjiang, Zhejiang [Korea, Mongolia; Asia, Europe].