Herbs green, branched, glabrous. Stems 5--15(--30) cm tall, slender, angular, branched; branchlets with numerous leaves, terete, apically slightly pubescent. Leaves sessile, blackish when dried, narrowly linear, usually sickle-shaped, declinate, 0.5--1.1(--2.5) cm × 1--2.5 mm, apex acuminate; nodes puberulent. Flowers in dichotomous cymes; bracts usually purplish, lanceolate, dry membranous. Pedicel 0.5--1.5 cm. Sepals purplish, lanceolate, 5--6 × 1--1.5 mm, 1(--3)-veined, base broad, margin narrowly dry-membranous, apex acuminate or acute. Petals subequaling or slightly longer than sepals, 2-cleft. Stamens conspicuously perigynous, shorter than petals. Ovary obovoid-globose; styles 3, linear, ca. 3 mm. Seeds brown, orbicular-reniform, papillose.

Grassland slopes, stony ground; 3900--4600 m. Xizang [Sikkim].