Shrubs 30-80 cm tall. Old branches light gray; herbaceous branchlets of current year jointed; joints 2-3 cm. Leaves linear, 2-3 mm; ocrea united to leaf. Pedicel 2-4 mm, jointed below middle. Flowers 1-3, at leaf axil. Tepals reflexed in fruit, light red, broadly elliptic. Fruit broadly ovoid, 1-2 × 0.8-1.8 cm. Achenes ovoid, coiled, 7-11 × 4-5 mm, beaked at end; ribs obtuse, inconspicuously with 3 rows (rarely 2 rows) of bristles on each. Bristles dense, stiff, free, not enlarged at base, 2-forked from middle or below, dense or slightly so to bundled at apices of achenes. Fl. May-Jun, fr. Jun-Jul.

* Sand dunes, deserts; ca. 500 m. Xinjiang.