Herbs perennial, ± farinose, glabrous. Stems fascicled, ascending, sparsely branched, slender and long, 15-40 cm, furrowed. Leaves linear, 15-35 × 0.5-1.5 mm, 1-veined, margin sometimes very sparsely papillate-ciliolate, apex acute or acuminate. Inflorescences racemelike, many flowered; bracts inserted at tip of pedicel, linear-lanceolate; pedicel to 3.5 mm, sometimes almost absent; bracteoles 2, linear, 2-6 mm, margin rugose. Perianth 5-merous, greenish white, 2.5-3 mm; tube tubular, lobes acute, apex incurved, adaxially inconspicuously hairy. Stamens not exserted. Ovary sessile. Style very short. Nutlet pale green, ellipsoid or subglobose, 2-2.5 mm, with prominent reticulate veins; persistent perianth subglobose, ca. 2 mm; stalk 3.5 mm. Fl. Apr-May, fr. Jun-Jul.

This species may prove to be inseparable from Thesium australe R. Brown, which has been recorded from Indonesia east to Australia.

The plants have medicinal uses.

Wet ravines, slopes, grasslands, fields. Anhui, Fujian, Gansu, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Jilin, Liaoning, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Xinjiang, Yunnan, Zhejiang [Japan, Korea, Mongolia].