Carex cercostachys Franchet, Bull. Soc. Philom. Paris, sér. 8, 7: 27. 1895; Kobresia nepalensis (Nees) Kükenthal var. stiebritziana (Handel-Mazzetti) R. C. Srivastava; K. stiebritziana Handel-Mazzetti.

Rhizomes short. Basal sheaths prominent and persistent, brown or pale brown, dull, margins strongly fibrillose, not retaining dried leaf blades. Culms densely tufted, erect or sometimes curved, rigid, obtusely trigonous, 5-35 cm tall, 0.7-1.5 mm in diam. Leaves basal, shorter than or equaling culms; blade filiform, folded or involute, 1-2 mm wide, midrib not distinct abaxially. Inflorescence densely spicate, androgynous, brown, linear, 1.7-7 × 0.3-0.7 cm; lowest involucral bract glumelike, apex obtuse, acute, or shortly aristate; upper spikelets male, lower spikelets female (rarely androgynous in lowest part of inflorescence). Male glumes brown, oblong-lanceolate, 4-6 mm, membranous, margin hyaline near apex. Female glumes brown to dark brown, with pale brown or pale green midvein, oblong-lanceolate or lanceolate, 4-6.5(-7.5) × 1.5-2.3 mm, midvein narrow or broad, margin hyaline, apex acute or obtuse, occasionally aristate. Prophylls: lower part pale green, apex brown, narrowly oblong or lanceolate, 4.5-7 × 0.8-1 mm, papery, 2-keeled, keels scabrid, margins free to base, overlapping, apex truncate or notched, hyaline. Nutlets narrowly oblong or oblanceolate, trigonous, shortly stipitate and beaked, 2.7-4 (excluding beak) × 0.6-1.2 mm, beak 0.5-1 mm. Stigmas 3. Sterile rachilla of female spikelets to 1/2 as long as nutlet, sometimes with vestigial glume(s) at apex. Fl. and fr. Jul-Oct.

Scree slopes, grassy slopes among shrubs, on rocks, alpine meadows; 3600-5000 m. Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan [Bhutan, India (Sikkim), Nepal].