Relatives
Calligonum leucocladum (Schrenk) Bunge - Pale-branched Calligonum.
Taxonomic position.
Family Polygonaceae Juss. genus Calligonum L.Morphology and biology.
Shrub 0,4-1,2 m tall with tap-root, less often with rhizome and tap-root. Branches geniculately flexuous at angle of 40-70(80)°, with pale, often with brown tint, bark on old branches. Herbaceous shoots glabrous. Leaves 10-25 mm long, green. Flowers in twos in sheath axils. Pedicels glabrous. Perianth white, glabrous. Stamens 10, with pink anthers. Fruits 8-22 mm long, medium-sized, less often large or small, light yellow when young, light brown when mature. Wings 2-crested, soft, broadly elliptic on very short (0,5-1,5 mm) ribs or oblong-elliptic on long (1,5-3 mm) ribs, glabrous, less often near margin with simple, 1-4 mm long, setaceous, less often laminate appendages; margins closed on all sides, so nutlet is not visible, or open beneath, or above, or beneath and above, or on all sides; wings straight, less often with revolute or convolute margins, with smooth, tess often transversely undulated surface, with finely dentate, less often entire or double-dentate margins. Wing halves not fused at ends, less often 1-3 mm fused at lower, upper or both ends boat-like, hence the fruit has triangular or short-cylindrical outline. Nutlet poorly twisted, less often intensely twisted by angle up to 180°, or not twisted. 2n=18. Flowers in April, fruits in May - June.Distribution.
Kazakhstan, Central Asia; Noerh-Western China.Ecology.
Occurs in psammophyte-shrubby and saxaul shingle-sandy, takyr-like arenaceous and typical sand deserts, at fringes of tugai shrubberies, on fine sands near outcrops or bedding of grey sandstones, limestones or other bedrock, at ancient river beds, slopes of cliffs.Use and economic value.
Land-improving plant.References:
Sokolov SI., Svjaseva OA., Kubli VA. 1980. Ranges of trees and shrubs of the USSR. V.2. Leningrad: Nauka. 144 p. (In Russian).Soskov YuD. 1988. The genus Calligonum L. (systematics, geography, evolution). Thesis Doct. Biol. Sci. Leningrad. 472 p. (In Russian).