Plants perennial. Rhizome creeping. Stems terete, 10--30 cm × 0.9--1.2 mm. Basal leaves 2--4; leaf sheath 3--6 cm, occasionally closed or margin narrowly scarious, auricles rounded; leaf blade linear, slightly flattened or margin involute and seemingly narrower and channeled, apex acute. Inflorescences 1.5--3 cm, 2--5-branched; involucral bract often longer than inflorescence. Flowers in clusters of 2--5; pedicel short. Bracteoles 2, chestnut brown to dark brown, 1.5--1.8 mm, margin hyaline, apex subrounded. Perianth segments yellowish green, oblong to elliptic-lanceolate, 2.5--3.5 × 1--1.3 mm, subequal or outer ones somewhat longer than inner, abaxially thickened, margin dark brown, apex obtuse. Stamens 6; filaments ca. 0.5 mm; anthers 1.3--1.6 mm. Ovary oblong. Style ca. 1 mm; stigmas ca. 1.5 mm. Capsule trigonous ellipsoid to trigonous ovoid-oblong, 2.5--3.6 mm, 3-loculed, apex mucronate. Seeds rust- or straw-colored, obovoid, 0.6--0.7 mm, both ends very shortly appendaged. Fl. Jun--Jul, fr. Jul--Aug.

Grasslands, grasslands near rivers, marshes, beside water, fields; 600--3100 m. Qinghai, Xinjiang [Mongolia, Russia].