Elyna schoenoides C. A. Meyer in Ledebour, Fl. Altaic. 4: 235. 1833; Kobresia deasyi C. B. Clarke; K. glaucifolia F. T. Wang & Tang ex P. C. Li; K. lacustris P. C. Li; K. maquensis Y. C. Yang; K. pamiroalaica K. V. Ivanova; K. septatonodosa T. Koyama.

Rhizomes short. Basal sheaths prominent, commonly yellowish- to reddish brown (occasionally dark brown), shiny, leathery, not retaining dried leaf blades. Culms densely tufted, erect, subterete or upper part trigonous, 3-60(-70) cm tall, stout, 1-2.5 mm in diam. Leaves basal, erect or sometimes curved, longer or shorter than culms; blade filiform, 1-2 mm wide, midrib not distinct abaxially, margin involute. Inflorescence densely spicate, dark to yellowish brown, oblong to clavate, occasionally ovate or narrowly ovate, 1-4 × 0.2-1 cm. Spikelets (except a few terminal ones that may be male only) bisexual; lowest involucral bract glumelike, apex aristate or not. Bisexual spikelets with 1 basal female flower and (1-)4-7 distal male flowers; glumes brown, with yellowish green midvein, oblong to narrowly ovate or sometimes broadly ovate, 3-6 × 1.2-3.6 mm, midvein broad, margin broadly to narrowly hyaline, apex obtuse or mucronate. Prophylls yellowish brown to brown, oblong, narrowly elliptic, or lanceolate, (3-)3.5-7.3 × (0.9-)1.4-2.5 mm, papery to membranous, 2-keeled (sometimes obscurely so), keels smooth, sometimes many veined between keels, margins free to base. Nutlets pale yellow to grayish brown, obovoid or oblong-obovoid, trigonous, 1.7-3.5 × 1-2.1 mm, 1/2-2/3 as long as prophyll, shortly stipitate, shortly beaked, beak 0.5-0.7 mm. Stigmas 3. Fl. and fr. May-Sep.

Boggy places among shrubs, sedge moors, streamsides, shaded places; 2500-5800 m. Gansu, Qinghai, Sichuan, Xinjiang, Xizang, Yunnan [Afghanistan, Bhutan, India (Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim), Kashmir, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan; SW Asia (Iran)].