Plants perennial, tufted, 6--25 cm tall. Rhizome short. Stems terete, thin, striate. Cataphylls dark brown to chestnut brown, often withered. Basal leaf 1; leaf sheath auricles chestnut brown, obtuse, ca. 0.5 × 0.5 mm; leaf blade terete, 5--9 cm × 0.5--1 mm. Cauline leaf usually 1, borne distally on stem; leaf sheath auricles absent; leaf blade linear, 0.7--2 cm. Inflorescences terminal; head solitary, 0.7--2.2 cm in diam., 4--10-flowered; bracts 3--5, ovate to obovate-oblanceolate; basal bract 9--12 × ca. 4 mm, slightly longer than head, apex acuminate. Perianth segments chestnut brown or whitish, lanceolate, 5--8.5 × 1--2.5 mm, subequal, center thickened, margin membranous, apex obtuse. Stamens 6, equaling or slightly longer than perianth; filaments purplish brown at maturity, 4.5--6 mm; anthers 2.2--2.6 mm. Style 0.5--4 mm; stigmas 0.5--2 mm. Capsule reddish brown, trigonous oblong, 3--3.3 mm, 3-septate, apex beaked; beak ca. 1.5 mm. Seeds oblong, 0.9--1 mm; appendages ca. 1 mm, unequal. Fl. Jul--Aug, fr. Aug--Oct.

* Wet grasslands in high mountains, limestone cliffs, moist ledges, roadsides on slopes; 2000--4500 m. Gansu, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan.