Plants perennial, sparsely tufted. Rhizome short and knobby or creeping. Stems terete, 9--55 cm × 0.8--2 mm, striate. Cataphylls few. Basal and cauline leaves 2 or 3. Cauline leaves with sheath auricles well developed, obtuse, 0.5--3 mm; leaf blade terete, 1--10(--21) cm × 1--1.5 mm, perfectly and distinctly septate. Inflorescences terminal; head 1, wrapped in basal bract while in bud, 10--25 mm in diam., 7--25-flowered; bracts 3--5, lanceolate, basal one or two 1.5--2.3 cm × 2--3(--5) mm, others ca. 1.2 cm × 3--4 mm. Flowers pedicellate, bracteolate. Perianth segments spreading and reflexed, whitish yellow, lanceolate, 5--8 × 1.2--2 mm, subequal, membranous, veins usually 3. Stamens 6; filaments reddish at base in fruit, purple-black distally, 4--7 mm; anthers 2--4 mm. Style ca. 2 mm; stigmas 0.7--1 mm. Capsule dark brown when mature, narrowly trigonous ellipsoid, 5--7 mm, 1-loculed, apex mucronate. Seeds 0.8--1 mm, oblong; appendages 2, white, 1--1.2 mm. Fl. Jun--Aug, fr. Jul--Sep.

Paths and wet places in forests, Salix thickets, slopes, grasslands; 1700--4700 m. Gansu, Guizhou, Henan, Hubei, Ningxia, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan [Bhutan, Sikkim].