Shrublets. Cushions 20--25 cm wide. Current year's branches 2--5 mm. Leaf blade pale glaucous, similar in spring and summer, linear-needlelike to linear, 5--7 X 0.5--0.6 mm, subcomplanate in cross section, rigid, glabrous, apex shortly awned. Inflorescences unbranched; peduncle ca. 2 cm, densely pubescent; spike to 1.5 cm, with 4--7(or 8) spikelets; spikelets 2-flowered; bracts broadly ovate to oblong-ovate, ca. 4 mm, densely pubescent, apex subrounded to truncate and mucronate; first bractlet ca. 6 mm, often densely pubescent, apex mucronate. Calyx (6--)7--8 mm, tube densely velvety; limb white, ± velvety, apically 10-lobed, veins dark purple and extending to apex of lobes or nearly so. Corolla pink. Fl. Jun-Jul, fr. Jul-Aug.

High slopes with grasslands; 2100--2900 m. W Xinjiang [Kyrgyzstan].