Acantholimon lycopodioides (Girard) Boiss.

Densely tufted shrub; branches short, densely leafy. Leaves planolanceolate, minutely scabrid-margined. Scape simple, shorter than the leaves. Spikelets 3-6, arranged in densely distichous terminal spike. Spikelets 2-3-flowered, 4-5-bracteate. Outer bract oblong-lanceolate, acuminate, reddish; first and second inner bracts oblong, longer than the outer bract; other bracts small, almost hyaline. Calyx broadly funnel-shaped; tube densely hispidu¬lous; limb broad, white, 5-lobed to subtruncate; nerves stopping near the margin of the limb.

Shrublets, densely pulvinate. Cushions 30--100 cm wide. Leaf blade glaucous, linear, (1--)1.5--3 X 0.1--0.2(--0.3) cm, rigid, glabrous, apex shortly awned. Inflorescences unbranched, 3--4(--5) cm, densely pubescent; spikes dense, distichous, with 5--8 spikelets; spikelets 2 or 3 flowered; bracts broadly ovate, 4--5 mm, pubescence very short; first bractlet 6--7 mm, broadly membranous, pubescence very short, apex with a very short awn. Calyx 6--8 mm, funnelform, tube densely velvety between ribs; limb white with red-purple veins, veins pubescent or glabrescent. Corolla pink to pinkish. Fl. Jul-Aug, fr. Aug-Sep.

Distribution: West Pakistan, Afghanistan and Soviet Central Asia, Pamir Alai, W. and S. Pamir.

Fl. Per.: July-September.

Rocks and dry slopes; 2500--3000 m or sometimes higher. NW Xinjiang [Afghanistan, India, Kashmir, Pakistan, Tajikistan].

Statice lycopodioides Girard, Ann. Sci. Nat. Bot., ser 3, 2: 330. 1844.