Plants perennial, tufted, 3--7 cm tall. Rhizome short. Stems terete, striate. Cataphylls 1 or 2, pale brown. Leaves basal, occasionally 1 cauline; leaf sheath open or sometimes closed, auricles absent; leaf blade broadly linear to narrowly lanceolate, flat, 1.5--6 cm × 1--3 mm, apex obtuse. Inflorescences terminal; head solitary, 0.7--1.4 cm in diam., (2 or)3--6-flowered; basal bract leaflike, 0.5--2 cm, often longer than head. Perianth segments brownish yellow to chestnut yellow, chestnut in fruit, lanceolate, 4--4.5 × 1.1--1.6 mm, equal or inner ones slightly longer than outer, apex acute. Stamens 6; filaments 2.5--3.5 mm; anthers 0.5--0.7 mm. Style 0.5--1.5 mm; stigmas 1.5--2 mm. Capsule chestnut brown, trigonous oblong to ellipsoid, 5--6 mm, imperfectly 3-septate, apex mucronate. Seeds oblong, 0.5 mm; appendages white, 1.1--1.5 mm including tails. Fl. Jun--Jul, fr. Jul--Aug.

Moist sand on river banks, wet gravel; 4000--4700 m. Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan [Bhutan, Nepal, Sikkim].