Shrubs 50-80 cm tall, rarely above 1 m tall, much branched, spreading. Old branches light gray; herbaceous branchlets of current year light green; joints 2-5 cm. Leaves linear, curved, 2-5 mm; ocrea light brown, united to leaf. Pedicel 5-10 mm. Flowers 1-3, at leaf axil. Tepals spreading in fruit, red, broadly elliptic, usually 3-4 × 1-3 mm. Fruit broadly ovoid, 1-1.3 × 1.1-1.4 cm. Achenes broadly ellipsoid or broadly ovoid, 1-1.3 cm × 4-5 mm; ribs obtuse, with wings only at base of achenes; wings narrow, 1-2 mm wide, stiff, leathery; margin of wings narrowing to bristles; bristles sparse, flat, ca. as long as or shorter than width of achenes, but 3-5 × as long as width of wings, stiff, spreading and forked at middle or above, apices very short and divaricate. Fl. Jun, fr. Jun-Jul.

Sand dunes; ca. 600 m. Xinjiang [Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan].