Zygophyllum potaninii Maxim.

Herbs, perennial, 10-25 cm tall. Stems thick, erect or spreading, basally much branched. Stipules connate, ca. 3 mm, herbaceous. Leaves with 2 or 4 leaflets; petiole 3-8 mm, winged; leaflet blades obliquely obovate, elliptic, or rotund, 1-2.5 × 0.5-2 cm, thick. Flowers axillary, paired or in threes, pendulous. Pedicel shorter than sepals, elongating after anthesis. Sepals yellowish, obovate, 6-11 × 4-5 mm. Petals white but orange at base, spatulate-obovate, shorter than sepals. Stamens longer than sepals; appendages linear-elliptic, half as long as filaments. Capsule ovoid-globose to globose, 1.5-2.5 × 1.5-2.6 cm, pendulous, 5-locular, with 5 wings, wings 5-7 mm, 4 or 5 seeds per locule. Seeds obliquely ovoid, ca. 5 × 3 mm. Fl. May-Jun, fr. Jun-Sep.

Deserts, gravel hills. Gansu, W Nei Mongol, Xinjiang [Kazakhstan, Mongolia].