Halothamnus iliensis

Halothamnus iliensis is an annual plant with blueish-green, pale striped branches. The half-terete leaves are linear, and up to 50 mm long. The flowers are 3,8-4,6 mm long, shorter than their bract and bracteoles, with lanceolate tepals, their membranous margins at the apex distinctly wider than laterally. The stigmas have a widened, rounded, denticulate-fringed apex. The winged fruit is 10–15 mm in diameter, the tepal lobes with thick, spongy keels, forming a flat five radiated cone. The fruit tube has concave sides with sharply prominent ridges (veins). At its bottom, a wide, sharp-edged prominent peripheral rim surrounds the large ovate pits. In the lower parts of the plants, the fruits are heavier with shorter wings, in the upper part fruits are lighter with larger wings (heterocarpy)

The distribution area of Halothamnus iliensis extends from Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, northern Afghanistan to Tajikistan and Kirghistan. It grows in semideserts on sandy, clayey, or stony, often saline soils, up to 850 m above sea level.