Cistanchis belong to the endangered species of the family Ledanaceae, also known as Da Rue, Inch Rue, Cistanchis, and Chagan Gueya (in Mongolian). Cistanchis is a parasitic plant in the roots of desert trees pike and red willow, with low requirements for soil and water, making it a more promising industry. It is distributed in Inner Mongolia, Ningxia, Gansu and Xinjiang, known as "desert ginseng", with high medicinal value, is China's traditional precious Chinese medicinal materials, and is also one of the most frequently used tonic medicines in the kidney tonic and aphrodisiac prescription. Cistanchis is a perennial parasitic herb, 80-100cm tall, with fleshy, fat stems that are not branched. Scale leaves are yellow, fleshy, imbricate, lanceolate or linear-lanceolate. Spikes terminal on flowering stems; 1 bract under each flower, 2 bracteoles, basally united with calyx; abaxially hairy, ca. 1x as long as flowering stems, calyx 5-lobed, ciliate; corolla tubular-campanulate, yellow, apically 5-lobed, lobes blue-purple; stamens 4. Capsule ovate, brown. Seeds very numerous, minute. Seeds very numerous, minute. Not branched, thicker proximally. Leaves fleshy, scalelike, spirally arranged, yellowish white, lower leaves dense, broadly ovate or triangular-ovate, 5 a 15 mm long, 10-20 mm wide, upper leaves sparse, lanceolate or narrowly lanceolate, 10-40 mm long, 5-10 mm wide. Spikes terminal, projecting from the ground, 15-50 cm long, with numerous flowers; bracts linear-lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, 2-4 cm long, 5-8 mm wide, subequal to corolla; bracteoles ovate-lanceolate or lanceolate, subequal to calyx; calyx campanulate, 10-15 mm long, 5-lobed, lobes suborbicular; corolla tubular-campanulate, 3-4 cm long, pale yellowish white, with a few leaves. 4 cm, yellowish white, tube recurved, with 2 bright yellow longitudinal projections off-axis, lobes 5, yellowish white, lilac, or lilac-margined; stamens 4, 2 strong, subinternalized; ovary ellipsoid, white, with yellow nectaries at base, style elongate, subequal to corolla, stigma subglobose. Capsule ovoid, 2-valved, brown; seeds numerous, minute, elliptic-ovoid or elliptic, 0.6 a 1 mm long, surface reticulate, glossy.