Uncinia nepalensis Nees in Wight, Contr. Bot. India, 129. 1834; Carex linearis Boott (1858), not Clairville (1811); C. linearis var. elachista C. B. Clarke; Kobresia nepalensis var. elachista (C. B. Clarke) Kükenthal.

Rhizomes short. Basal sheaths prominent and persistent, pale brown or brown, dull, fibrillose, not retaining dried leaf blades. Culms densely tufted, erect and rigid, occasionally filiform, obtusely trigonous, (2-)10-44 cm tall, 0.7-1.5 mm in diam. Leaves basal, ± equaling culms; blade filiform, margin involute, 0.3-1.1 mm wide. Inflorescence spicate, androgynous, linear, 1.5-8 × 0.2-0.5 cm, dense above, looser below; lowest involucral bract glumelike, apex long aristate. Spikelets all unisexual, 1-flowered. Male glumes yellowish brown laterally, with green midvein, narrowly oblong, ca. 7.5 × 1.5 mm, sides papery, margin not hyaline, apex obtuse. Female glumes brown laterally, with green midvein, ovate to lanceolate, 3.3-5 × 2-2.4 mm, midvein broad, margin hyaline or not, apex mucronate, acute, or obtuse. Prophylls lower part pale green, apex brown, utriculiform, linear-oblong, 4-7.5 × 0.8-1.7 mm, membranous, 2-keeled, keels scabrid, margins open only near apex. Nutlets narrowly oblong or oblanceolate, trigonous, stipitate and beaked, 3.5-6.5 (including beak and stipe) × 0.7-1 mm, beak 1.5-2.2 mm, stipe ca. 0.5 mm. Stigmas 3. Sterile rachilla of female spikelets green, linear, 1/4-2/3 as long as nutlet, margin ciliate. Fl. and fr. Jun-Oct.

Scree slopes, dry grassy slopes, on rocks, alpine shrubby meadows, damp rocky cliffs; 3600-4600 m. Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan [Bhutan, India (Sikkim, Uttarakhand), Kashmir, Nepal, Pakistan].