Shrubs 30-80 cm tall, rarely to 1.5 m. Old branches gray-white or light gray; herbaceous branchlets of current year light green; joints 1-3 cm. Leaves scale-like, ca. 1 mm; ocrea united to leaf. Pedicel short, ca. 2 mm, jointed at base. Flowers 1 or 2, at leaf axil. Tepals reflexed in fruit, light red or gray-white, broadly elliptic. Fruit yellow or yellow-brown, broadly ovoid or broadly ellipsoid, 0.8-1.5 × 0.8-1.4 cm. Achenes ovoid, coiled, prominently ribbed; bristles in 2 rows per rib, short, slightly longer than width of achenes, stiff, enlarged at base, separate or somewhat united, 2- or 3-branched from middle or above and then repeatedly branched; apical branches spiniform, short. Fl. May-Jun, fr. Jun-Jul. 2n = 36*.

One of us (Grabovskaya-Borodina) regards this as a synonym of Calligonum litvinovii Drobow (see Borodina, Rast. Tsentral. Azii 9: 122–130. 1989).

Sandy deserts, stony slopes of foothills; 1500-3000 m. Gansu, Xinjiang [Mongolia].