Plants perennial, 20--40(--50) cm tall. Rhizome creeping, knobby, stout. Stems terete to slightly flattened, 1--2 mm in diam. Cataphylls several, pinkish. Basal leaves 1--3, cauline leaves 1--4; leaf sheath auricles absent; leaf blade flat, 5--14 cm × 2--6 mm, apex obtuse to acute. Inflorescences with involucral bract erect, leaflike, 1--6 cm, shorter or slightly longer than inflorescence; heads 2--5, 8--15 mm in diam., 3--9-flowered; basal bract leaflike, lanceolate, ca. 1.5 × 0.1--0.2 cm. Perianth segments reddish brown to purplish brown, lanceolate, 4.5--6 × ca. 1.2 mm, unequal with outer ones slightly shorter than inner, keeled, margin scarious, apex acute to acuminate. Stamens 6; filaments flat and wider at base, 1.5--2 mm; anthers 2--3 mm. Style 2--2.5 mm; stigmas dark brown, linear, 3--5 mm. Capsule brown, ellipsoid, 5--6 mm, 3-septate, apex beaked; beak 2.5--3 × 2.5--3 mm. Seeds reddish brown, ovoid, ca. 0.8 mm, both ends appendaged; appendages white, 1--1.5 mm. Fl. May--Jul, fr. Jun--Aug.

Rock crevices in forests, scrub on turfy soils, wet grasslands in high mountains, stony pastures, river banks, moist cliffs, steep and dripping roadside banks; 1700--4900 m. Gansu, Qinghai, Shanxi, Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan [Bhutan, Myanmar, E Nepal, Sikkim].