Shrubs recumbent, ca. 1 m tall, much branched. Old branches recumbent, red-brown or purple-brown; young branches erect or oblique, ascending, greenish. Leaves lanceolate, linear-lanceolate, or ovate-lanceolate, falcately curved, 5-8(-15) × 1-2 mm, base slightly narrow, margin narrowly membranous, apex obtuse or acute; green branchlets often in leaf axils; leaves on such branchlets smaller. Racemes terminal, clustered into spikes; inflorescence branches yellow-green or purplish red, often exceeding leafy branches, robust, with sparse linear-lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate bracts in lower part; bracts yellow-green, leaflike, 7-15 × ca. 2 mm; bracts under flowers lanceolate, 6-10 × ca. 2 mm, equaling or slightly exceeding petals. Pedicels ca. 2 mm. Sepals linear-lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, 2-4(-6) × 1-1.5 mm, slightly shorter than petals, margin narrowly membranous, apex acute. Petals pink or purple-red, narrowly obovate or narrowly elliptic, 5-7 × 2-4 mm, withering and persistent. Filaments ca. 1/2 or 2/3 united, shorter than petals. Ovary conic, 3-6 mm. Capsule narrowly conic, 8-10(-15) mm, 3-septicidal. Seeds awned; awns white villous nearly throughout. Fl. May-Jul, fr. Jul-Aug.

Rocky mountain slopes, riversides in high mountains; 2600-4600 m. SE Xizang, NW Yunnan [Bhutan, India, Nepal].