Heliotropium acutiflorum Karelin & Kirilov

Herbs perennial, 5-15 cm tall. Stems branched from base, spreading strigose; branches usually erect. Petiole 1-2 cm, densely strigose; leaf blade narrowly ovate to ovate, 1-2.5 × 1-1.5 cm, strigose or hirtellous, base broadly cuneate to rounded, margin entire, apex obtuse. Cymes scorpioid, 1-3 cm, usually 3-7-flowered. Pedicel slender. Calyx lobes oblong-ovate, 2-2.5 mm, slightly enlarged in fruit, strigose outside, glabrous inside. Corolla tubular, ca. 3 mm, short strigose outside, glabrous inside; throat with 5 terete appendages; lobes erect to spreading, linear, ca. 0.5 mm. Filaments inserted ca. 1 mm above base of corolla tube; anthers oblong, ca. 1 mm. Ovary subglobose ca. 0.8 mm in diam., glabrous. Style 0.6-0.8 mm, ca. as long as stigma, glabrous; stigma short conical to subellipsoid, short pubescent. Mericarps narrowly ovate, 3-3.5 mm, densely white villous. Fl. and fr. May-Jun.

Dunes, sandy ground. N Xinjiang [Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan].