Plants erect, bright green, 0.5-10 dm, minutely and sparsely puberulous on young branches, otherwise glabrous. Stems branched above bases, glabrous; branches ascending, base fused to subtending leaves for ± 1 mm, glabrous. Leaves ascending or partly appressed to stem, green; blade narrowly linear, planoconvex, 3-20 mm, apex acute. Inflorescences much-branched; branchlets ascending, 1-120 mm, slender; glomes (1-)3(-6)-flowered; bracts similar to leaves, distal ones much shorter, 0.5-10(-20) mm or absent. Perianths obovoid to pyriform, subglobose in fruit, 1-2 × 0.6-1.2 mm; perianth segments erect, connate to ¹/2 or ²/3 their length in bisexual flowers, ± completely connate in pistillate flowers, distally hooded, slightly horned near apex; stigmas (2-)3. Seeds dimorphic; subglobose, 1.2-2 mm, with seed coat black, or flat and coiled, 1.75-2.25 mm, with seed coat brownish green.

Flowering late summer-fall. Alkaline and saline soils; 1400-1900 m; introduced; Nev., Wyo.; Asia.