Description

Key Characters:

Growth Form: Annual or perennial herbs.

Stems: Usually many-branched, often forming tumbleweeds.

Roots:

Leaves: Leaves simple. Alternate. Blades narrow. Apex often spine–tipped. Sessile or sometimes clasping the stem. Stipules absent.

Flowers: Flowers solitary or clustered in the leaf axils, each one subtended by 2 small bracteoles. Flowers small, bisexual (perfect). Calyx (4)5-lobed, the lobes lanceolate to oblong, usually transversely keeled and often becoming winged in fruit. Corolla (petals) absent. Stamens usually 5; anthers dithecal, opening by longitudinal slits. Ovary superior, 2–3(–5)-carpellate, 1-celled; ovule 1; styles 2(3); stigmas 2(3), dry.

Fruit: Utricles flattened; enclosed by the calyx. Seeds 1 per fruit; horizontal; orbicular.

Ploidy:

Habitat: Maritime or often alkaline steppes.

Elevation Range: