Shrubs 0.6-2 m tall. Old branches grayish yellow; herbaceous branchlets of current year light green, slender. Leaves linear, 2-3 mm. Flowers 2 or 3, at leaf axils. Tepals reflexed in fruit. Fruit light yellow or red-yellow, cordate-ovoid or ovoid, 1.3-1.8 × 1.1-1.6 cm. Achenes ovoid-oblong, slightly coiled, 8-9 × 4-5 mm, sharply ribbed with wings; wings 2-4 mm wide, submembranous, base subcordate, margin slightly involute; margin of wing toothed; teeth elongating to bristles; bristles somewhat soft, nearly as long as width of wings, not branched or forked at tips. Fl. Apr-May, fr. May. 2n = 18*.