Pin Leaf Seepweed

Plants erect, bright green, 0.5-10 dm, minutely and sparsely puberulous on young branches, otherwise glabrous. Stems branched above bases, glabrous; branches ascending, base fused to subtending leaves for ± 1 mm, glabrous. Leaves ascending or partly appressed to stem, green; blade narrowly linear, planoconvex, 3-20 mm, apex acute. Inflorescences much-branched; branchlets ascending, 1-120 mm, slender; glomes (1-)3(-6)-flowered; bracts similar to leaves, distal ones much shorter, 0.5-10(-20) mm or absent. Perianths obovoid to pyriform, subglobose in fruit, 1-2 × 0.6-1.2 mm; perianth segments erect, connate to ¹/2 or ²/3 their length in bisexual flowers, ± completely connate in pistillate flowers, distally hooded, slightly horned near apex; stigmas (2-)3. Seeds dimorphic; subglobose, 1.2-2 mm, with seed coat black, or flat and coiled, 1.75-2.25 mm, with seed coat brownish green.

Herbs annual, 20-70 cm tall. Stem erect, densely or sparsely branched, terete, slightly striate, base to 6 mm in diam.; branches obliquely spreading, long, usually thin. Leaves usually obliquely spreading or suberect, linear, semiterete or compressed, 1-2.5 cm × 2-3 mm, base contracted, appearing shortly petiolate, apex acuminate. Glomerules inserted on petiole, not or only shortly pedunculate, usually 1-flowered, sometimes 2- or 3-flowered; bracts and bractlets ovate, membranous. Flowers bisexual and female. Perianth cylindric to obovoid, 1.5-3 × 1-2 mm, 5-lobed, fleshy; segments usually remaining closed at anthesis, slightly cucullate. Anthers oblong, ca. 0.4 mm. Stigmas 2 or 3, exserted, filiform, very short. Utricle completely enclosed by perianth; pericarp membranous. Seed vertical, black, glaucous, not lustrous, obliquely ovoid, slightly compressed, 1.5-2 × 1.2-1.5 mm, pitted, rim margin obtuse; radicle inferior. Fl. and fr. Jul-Oct.

introduced; Nev., Wyo.; Asia.

Flowering late summer-fall.

Alkaline and saline soils; 1400-1900m.

Gobi desert, strongly saline-alkaline deserts, dry prairies, wet banks. Xinjiang [Russia (SE European part, SW Siberia); C Asia].

Chenopodium linifolium (Pallas) Roemer & Schultes; Lerchea linifolia (Pallas) Kuntze; Schanginia linifolia (Pallas) C. A. Meyer.