Camphorosma lessingii Litvinov, Trudy Bot. Muz. Imp. Akad. Nauk 2: 96. 1905.

Plants slender, with shorter, densely crowded annual branches. Leaves ca. 5 mm. Inflorescence ca. 4 mm in diam. Lateral perianth segments subequaling middle ones. Utricle ca. 1 mm in diam. Fl. and fr. Jul-Sep.

This variety is often treated as a separate species, Camphorosma lessingii. An annual (occasionally biennial) species, C. songorica Bunge (Trudy Imp. S.-Peterburgsk. Bot. Sada 6(2): 451. 1880), may be expected to occur in W China; it was reported from W Xinjiang by Iljin (in Shishkin, Fl. URSS 6: 119. 1936), but without exact localities or reference to herbarium specimens.

Gobi desert, deserts, arid slopes. Xinjiang (Altay Shan) [Mongolia, Russia (SW Siberia); C Asia, extreme SE Europe].