Atraphaxis pyrifolia Bunge

Shrubs ca. 1 m tall, much branched. Stem stout, tortuous, with gray-brown bark; epidermis splitting longitudinally; woody branches grayish white, straight or tortuous, apex without leaves, acuminate or spiny; herbaceous branchlets of current year glabrous, soon becoming lignified, spiny at apex. Petiole short, 1/6-1/3 length of blade; leaf blade green, broadly elliptic or obovate, 1.5-2.5 × 1-1.3 cm, both surfaces glabrous, reticulate veins prominent abaxially, margin entire or slightly crenate; ocrea brown at base, cylindric, membranous and pellucid in upper part, deeply cleft into 2 or 3 lanceolate or broadly lanceolate lobes; veins 2 or 3. Pedicel ca. 1 cm, jointed usually at lower 1/3 or below middle. Flowers dense in racemes at lateral branchlets of current year. Tepals 5, light yellow or yellow-red; outer tepals reflexed in fruit, ovate or narrowly ovate, ca. as long as above-joint portion of pedicel; inner tepals broadly elliptic or orbicular-cordate, 6-7 × 7-8 mm. Achenes light brown, shiny, trigonous-ovoid, smooth. Fl. and fr. May-Jun.

A branched shrub, 1-2 m tall; branches divaricate, ± rigid, rather short, pointed and spinescent, usually leafless at the end. Leaves petiolate, petiole 3-5 mm long; alternate, articulate at base or at the junction blade and petiole; blade obovate to spathulate, 8-15 mm x 5-10 mm, obtuse, entire bright green above, glaucescent beneath; ochreae short, cylindric, 2-3 (-5) mm long, obscurely nerved, the lower part brownish. Inflorescence a compact, 1.5-2.5 (-3.0) cm long, lateral raceme. Flowers pedicellate, pedicel 2.5-4 mm long, articulate below the middle. Perianth segments 5, pale yellow to pinkish yellow, 1-1.5 x 0.5-1 mm, outer 2 linear lanceolate, inner 3 ovate-oblong. Stamens 8, filaments 0.5-1.0 mm long. Ovary, 3-angled; styles 3. Fruit with enlarged, inner perianth segments, inner perianth segments slightly unequal, orbicular, 4-7 mm across, greatly exceeding the nut; outer segments smaller, elliptic, reflaxed. Nut smooth, brown, trigonous, acute, 2.0-3.0 x 1.0-1.5 mm broad. Seeds brown, smooth and shining.

Xinjiang [Afghanistan, ?India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan].

Distribution: Central Asia, Pamir-Alai, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Fl. Per.: May-July.

Stony slopes, scrub, Juniperus stands, stony deserts; 700-1500 m.

In Pakistan, this Irano-Turanian (Central Asian) element is rather rare, seems to be confined to Chitral between 2400-3500 m.

Tragopyrum glaucum Capus. in Ann. Agron. 8. No. 3. 1882.