Tamarix leptostachya A. Bunge

Shrubs, 1-3(-6) m tall. Growing branches of current year gray-purple or red. Leaves of growing branches narrowly ovate or ovate-lanceolate, base slightly decurrent, semiamplexicaul, apex acute; those of vegetative branches narrowly ovate or ovate-lanceolate, 1-4(-6) × 0.5-3 mm, base decurrent, apex acute. Racemes long, slender, 4-12 cm × 2-3 mm, terminal on branches of current year, clustered into terminal, dense, large, globose or ovoid panicles; peduncles 0.5-2.5 cm; bracts ascending, subulate, ca. 1.2 mm, equaling pedicels or subequaling calyx, apex acuminate. Pedicels equaling or slightly exceeding calyx. Flowers 5-merous, small. Calyx 0.7-0.9 mm; sepals ovate, 0.5-0.6 × ca. 0.4 mm, margin narrowly membranous, apex acuminate. Petals purplish red or pink, obovate, ca. 1.5 × 0.5 mm, ca. 2 × as long as calyx, apex obtuse, recurved, caducous. Disk 5-lobed, occasionally subdivided into 10 lobules. Stamens 5, opposite to sepals; filaments exserted, long, ca. 2 × as long as petals, base dilated, inserted at apex of disk lobes, or if disk lobes subdivided into lobules, then stamens inserted between lobes; anthers cordate, not apiculate. Ovary conic; styles 3. Capsule small, ca. 1.8 × 0.5 mm, ca. 2 × exceeding calyx. Fl. Jun-Jul. 2n = 24.

Shrub, 1-3 (-5) m tall with reddish brown to greyish brown bark and more or less appressed branches, plant entirely glabrous except the younger parts, glabrous to sparsely papillose. Leaves simple sessile with narrow base, narrowly ovate to lanceolate, younger leaves somewhat imbricate, 2-4 mm long, 0.5-2 mm broad, acute. Racemes aestival, densely compound, 4-12(-15) cm long, (2.5)-3 (-3.5) mm broad, peduncle 0.5-2.5 cm long. Bract herbaceous, somewhat narrowly triangular, 1.5-2 mm long, less than 0.5 mm broad, acuminate; pedicel c. 1 mm long or slightly shorter. Flowers pentamerous, pink. Sepals almost free, ovate or trullate ovate, acute to obtuse, finely denticulate at the margin, 0.5-0.75 mm long, 0.25-0.4 mm' broad. Petals free, obovate, rarely somewhat spathulate, 1.25-1.5 mm long, 0.5 mm broad, obtuse, caducous. Stamens 5, haplostemonous, filaments fused with the discal lobe i.e. confluent epilophic, 3 mm long, anthersmuticous, insertion peridiscal. Styles, 3 obovate, ovary stipitate, bottle-shaped, c. 1 mm long. Capsule 1.75-2 mm long, 0.5 mm broad.

Distribution: A Central Asian species, distributed in Mongolia, Russia, Western Tibet, Pakistan and Iran.

Fl. Per.: May-October

Salty soils, riversides, lakesides, lowlands in desert regions. Gansu, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Qinghai, Xinjiang [Mongolia; C Asia].