Shrubs or trees monoecious or rarely dioecious; bark light grayish brown or brown; crown conical or broadly pyramidal; branches ascending in apical part of plant and spreading toward base; branchlets pendulous, curved. Leaves in whorls of 3, loosely appressed, greenish white or slightly glaucous adaxially, all needlelike, nearly straight, slightly incurved, 3-10 × ca. 1 mm, concave adaxially, base decurrent, convex with longitudinal grooves at base abaxially, apex sharply pointed. Pollen cones axillary, yellow, ovoid-oblong or ellipsoid-ovoid; microsporophylls 10-16, decussate, each with 3 pollen sacs. Seed cones axillary, slightly glaucous when young, maturing purplish black and not glaucous, ovoid, 6-12 × 5-9 mm, 1-seeded. Seeds ovoid or conical-ovoid, 5-9 × 3-6 mm.

Forests or thickets; 1800-3900 m. SE Xizang, NW Yunnan [Afghanistan, Bhutan, N India, Kashmir, N Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Sikkim].