Sympegma Bunge, Bull. Acad. Imp. Sci. St.- Petersbourg 25: 371 (1879)

Sukhorukov, Alexander P., Liu, Pei-Liang & Kushunina, Maria, 2019, Taxonomic revision of Chenopodiaceae in Himalaya and Tibet, PhytoKeys 116, pp. 1-141 : 123-124

20. Sympegma Bunge, Bull. Acad. Imp. Sci. St.- Petersbourg 25: 371 (1879)

Sympegma Bunge, Bull. Acad. Imp. Sci. St.- Pétersbourg 25: 371 (1879). Type: S. regelii Bunge.

Description.

Subshrubs with several stems up to 40 cm tall; annual shoots glabrous or with tiny papillae (short simple hairs seen at higher magnification are present in the leaf axils). Leaves alternate, terete, green or glaucous, up to 2 cm long, mostly appressed to the stem, broadened at base, but slightly constricted, straight or incurved above the base with a short persistent mucro. Inflorescences leafy; partial inflorescences pedicellate with opposite bracts enclosing (1 –2)3– 6 flowers. Perianth glabrous or papillate; perianth segments (4)5, 2.5-3.0 mm long, fused only basally, clearly three-nerved, margins glabrous or tiny papillate, with wing-like projections originating from the upper half of the segments at fruiting stage; wings yellowish, white or pink turning brown in mature fruits. Stamens 5, anthers ~1.5 mm long, with hardly noticeable appendage. Style very broad terminating with two stigmas. Seed with vertically orientated, spiral embryo. Perisperm absent.

Genus of 1-2 species. Sympegma elegans G.L.Chu (Zhu [Chu] and Sanderson 2017) described from Gansu Province (China) was not investigated by us. It reportedly differs from S. regelii by slender branches, shorter internodes and mostly solitary flowers ( Zhu and Sanderson 2017).