Dilophia salsa Thomson

A curious tufted small perennial of saline marches at altitudes above 3000 m.

A small tufted perennial, 1-6 cm tall in fruit, glabrous, much branched from the base; rootstock 2-4 mm thick, simple or branched. Radical leaves densely rosulate, linear-oblong, or narrowly spathulate, 10-25 mm long, 1-5 mm broad, entire to bluntly toothed, shortly stalked or subsessile, apex rounded; cauline leaves ± involucrate below the inflorescence, linear; all leaves glabrous, fleshy. Racemes 10-20-flowered, bracteate below, densely corymbose. Flowers 3-3.5 mm across, white, sometimes with violet tinge; pedicels up to 4.5 mm long and somewhat thickened in fruit. Sepals c. 2 mm long, persistent. Petals c. 3 mm long, spathulate, apex subretuse or slightly toothed. Stamens c. 2: 2.5 mm long; anthers c. 0.3 mm Siliculae c. 2.5 mm in diam. with 2 wing-like crests on the valves; septum usually perforated or incommplete, c. 1 mm wide, seeds 2-4 in each locule, c. 0.8 mm long, oblong.

Herbs glabrous throughout, or fruit valves and/or sepals sparsely to densely pubescent with simple, flattened trichomes to 0.5 mm. Stems erect, somewhat fleshy, usually simple from taproot, 1.5-10 cm tall, often forming a flat mat 1-12 cm in diam. Leaves spatulate, linear-spatulate, oblong, or linear, (0.3-)0.6-2(-3) cm × (1-)2-3(-5) mm, fleshy, base attenuate, margin sinuate, dentate, or repand, sometimes entire, apex obtuse. Corymbs few to many flowered, lowermost or most flowers bracteate, sometimes flowers solitary from center of rosette. Fruiting pedicels 3-10 mm. Sepals erect or ascending, broadly ovate, (1-)1.5-2.5 × 1-1.5 mm, glabrous or densely pubescent, margin broadly membranous, apex denticulate or entire. Petals white or pink, drying purplish, spatulate to spatulate-linear, 1.8-2.5(-3.2) × 0.5-1(-1.5) mm, apex obtuse or subemarginate; claw to 2 mm. Filaments white, 1.1-1.6 mm; anthers ovate, (0.2-)0.3-0.5 mm, the apicula triangular, 0.05-0.1 mm, apex acute. Ovules (2-)4-8(-12) per ovary. Fruit valves oblong or ovate, glabrous or densely pubescent, 1-2.5 mm, notch 1-2 mm wide, apical cristae 3-14; replum 1.2-2.5 mm wide at base; style 0.2-0.5 mm. Seeds brown to blackish, broadly oblong, 0.7-1.1(-1.5) × 0.5-0.6 mm. Fl. Jun-Aug, fr. Jul-Sep.

C. Asia, Kashmir, Nepal, Tibet.

Distribution: C. Asia, Himalayas, Tibet to Nepal.

4800-5100 m

Fl. Per.: June-July.

Sandy river bottoms or marshes, damp mud by streamsides, debris covered glacial moraine, scree, grasslands, steep slopes with semiconsolidated scree, turf cushions, sand plains permafrost, salty pastures, dunes, alpine steppe; (2200-)3400-5500. Gansu, Qinghai, Xinjiang, Xizang [Bhutan, India, Kashmir, Kyrgyzstan, Nepal, Sikkim, Tajikistan].

Dilophia dutreuilii Franchet; D. kashgarica Ruprecht; D. salsa var. hirticalyx Pampanini.