Herbs perennial, 30--50 cm tall, glabrous. Roots thick. Stems erect. Leaves linear, 1--4.5 cm × ca. 1 mm, fleshy, base connate into a short sheath, apex acute. Corymbose cymes lax, bearing spines in forks of axis; spines 2--10 mm; bracts triangular, scarious. Flowers 3--4 mm in diam.; pedicel 1--5 mm. Calyx campanulate, 2--3 mm, 5-toothed; lobes triangular or ovate, margin scarious, apex obtuse. Petals light purple-red, pink, or white, cuneate, ca. 4 × 1 mm, apex retuse. Stamens subequaling petals; anthers globose. Ovary ovoid. Styles long linear. Capsule ovoid. Seeds brown, ovoid, ca. 1 mm, striate tuberculate. Fl. and fr. Jul--Sep.

* Desert grasslands, river bank sands; 500--900 m. N Xinjiang (Altay Shan).