The flowers are congregated and have a long peduncle which is jointed at the base. The greenish tepals are subequal, around 3mm long and 1mm wide. The stamens are very long. The large, oval fruit are 20mm long and 15mm wide, and have lateral, cordate wings -dark reddish-black when ripe, red when immature, with a vein running near the edge. The tepals hug the fruit. The seed is ovoid, wrinkled and brown. In her original 1932 description, as well as in her 1936 key in Komarov's "Flora SSSR", Losinskaja considers this species closely related and most similar to "Rheum ribes", the desert rhubarb of the mountains of the Middle East, in leaves and flowers, classifying them both in the section Ribesiformia. It can be distinguished from this species by its much smoother stem, much shorter leaf petiole and pyramidal-shaped inflorescence. The natural hybrid Rheum" × "svetlanae from Central Asia is a hybrid of this species and "R. compactum". It is primarily found in the Pamir, Altai and Western Tian-Shan mountains. It is found in Kazakhstan, eastern Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and northeastern Afghanistan. It grows in the Chimgan mountains in Uzbekistan, Chatkalsky Gorge in an offshoot of the Western Tian-Shan near Tashkent, the Chatkal Range straddling Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, as well as the Zarafshan Range straddling Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. It also has been found growing in the Hissar Range and in the land around the Vakhsh River in Tajikistan. In Kyrgyzstan it grows in the Chuy region and Taldy-Bulak valley in the Talas Alatau, Talas Region. In Kazakhstan it is found growing in the Kaskasu Gorge in the Karzhantau range, Korday Pass, the Kuyuk Pass near Taraz, in a number of places in the Aksu-Zhabagly Nature Reserve, on the Zhetysu ridge in the Ala-tau, and in the Karatau Mountains. It flowers in Kazakhstan from May to June. It has been collected growing from approximately 1700 to 3200m in elevation in the Western Tian-Shan, from in the 1300 to 2000m in the Chatkalsky, from 2300 to 2600m in the Zarafshan Range, 1780m in the Hissar, and 3300 to 3700m in the Vakhsh region.