Recording vegetation plots in dry steppes, semideserts and deserts of Kazakhstan in July 2014, we came across a plant I cannot identify. My first idea was that is a species of Polycnemum, but the plants have fleshy, obtuse and slightly cucullate prophylls. Therefore it is definitely a different genus. Probably another member of Chenopodiaceae but it may also be a different family. The aboveground part of the specimens is shorter han 2 cm. Unfortunately, I cannot recognize any flower structure, neither can I see any fruits. The plants were probaly damaged by severe drought od that season. Still, it may be a widespread species well known to people working on the vegetaton of central Asia as we collected from about five plots.
Many thanks for your help in advance.
Thanks, Arvind. I already checked all the genera such as Filago (incl. Gifola and Evax) and Gnaphalium before posting the photographs on Research Gate. I am quite sure that the plant does not beling to tribe Gnaphalieae. It is probably even not an Asteraceae.
Probably it is a dwarfish specimen of Petrosimonia triandra (Pall.) Simonk.
Thanks, Alexandr. This is not a bad idea. I will compare the plants with Gerb. Fl. SSSR no 3548, which we probably have in our collection, and let you know on Monday. However, our plants are glabrous, at least they already were glabrous when we collected them, whereas Petrosimonia triandra has a rather dense indumentum consisting of appressed hairs. The other surprising thing is that we collected such dwarfish specimens (shorter than 2 cm) from four or even five plots at various places.
It is Salsola tamariscina if glabrous. I don't see the details, but I have no other idea. Anyway, it is not Petrosimonia or Gnaphalium as suggested.
This seems to be a reasonable suggestion. Thanks! The plants look very much like those issued under Salsola tamariscina as Gerb. Fl. SSSR no 3542 (det. M. Iljin) and some other gatherings from Ukraine in our collection (all revised by S. Rilke). The only difficulty is that those "standard" herbarium specimens are well developed plants in fruit, while our dwarfish specimens (damaged by severe drought) were just about to flower. The structures I initially held for prophylls may actually be tepals.
Dear Jiri,
Please see my invitation to send me material. I hope to solve the problem , at least by anatomical investigation.
... ...The plants come closest to two species of Salsola s.l. which are very similar to each other: S. rosacea and S. tamariscina. They likely belong to S. rosaceae because the bracteoles are much shorter than the leaves (bracts). In these young plants it would be better to check also stem sections because S. tamariscina has a pronounced hypodermis (in the chlorenchymatic areas) containing large crystals, while a hypodermis is lacking in S. rosacea.
However, I am not fully convinced by that guess because flowers and fruits are not clearly visible and the typical wings which should be present on the fruting tepals in both species are not (yet?) developed. I am also somewhat puzzled by the greyish covering of the whole plants. To become sure I recommend to make simple leaf or stem transections (easily possible after having soaked them for 1-2 minutes in boiling water) for checking the presence or absence of C4-anatomy in the chlorenchyma. If there is no C4 anatomy - than I´m unable to make any further suggestion.......
Kind regards, Helmut Freitag
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