Axyris hybrida L.

Plants 5-40 cm tall. Stems erect, branched from base; branches often obliquely spreading or ascending, stellate hairy when young. Petiole shorter than leaf blade; leaf blade ovate, elliptic, or oblong-lanceolate, 0.5-3.5 × 0.2-1 cm, hairy on both surfaces, base cuneate or attenuate, margin entire, apex obtuse or acuminate; veins prominent abaxially. Male flowers: perianth segments 3, oblong, membranous, abaxially hairy, base attenuate, apex obtuse; stamens 3, exserted. Female flowers: perianth segments 3. Utricle broadly ellipsoid-obovoid, 1.5-2 × ca. 1.5 mm, encircled by wrinkles, with 2 small, triangular appendages apically. Fl. and fr. Jul-Aug.

Annual to 30 cm, erect, stellate-hairy, the branches ascending or spreading, longer than in the following species. Leaves ovate to oblong-ovate, with relatively short petioles, entire, obtusish, stellate-hairy on both sides, on the average 1-3 cm long. Staminate flowers in a short spiciform inflorescence at the ends of stem and branches. Perianth segments 3, oblong or obovate, stellate-hairy. Pistillate perianth 3-partite, hairy and stellate-pubescent. Fruit rounded-oval to obovate, 2-2.2 x 1.5-1.75 mm, strongly compressed laterally, concentrically wrinkled, dull, dark-brown, terminating in 2 very short scarious distant teeth (1/8 as long as fruit) often with minute denticles between them.

W Nepal: China, NW India, Mongolia, SE Russia; C and SW Asia.

Distribution: N and C. Asia, Kashmir

2600-3400 m

A species of stony and gravelly slopes.

Slopes, sand dunes, exposed river mud, field margins, roadsides. Gansu, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Henan, Nei Mongol, Qinghai, Shanxi, Xinjiang, Xizang, Yunnan [Kashmir, Mongolia, Nepal, SE Russia; C and SW Asia].

Axyris amaranthoides f. nana (W. Wang & P. Y. Fu) Kitagawa; Axyris amaranthoides var. nana W. Wang & P. Y. Fu.