Plants annual or perennial, yellowish green. Stems spreading, 5--18(--35) cm, glabrous or thinly pilose. Leaf blade elliptic-obovate, 3--7 × 1--3 mm, glabrous, base cuneate, apex obtuse. Glomerules leaf-opposed, 6--10-flowered. Flowers 5-merous, 1.2--1.5(--1.7) mm. Sepals ovate-oblong, ca. 1.5 × 0.5 mm, glabrous, apex obtuse. Stamens 5, short. Style 0.2--0.3 mm; stigma lobes nearly sessile. Achene ovoid, longer than sepals. Seed flat-orbicular, ca. 0.5 mm in diam. Fl. Jul, fr. Aug--Sep.

Chaudhri (Meded. Bot. Mus. Herb. Rijks Univ. Utrecht 285: 315--320. 1968) divided this rather variable species into four varieties based on minor differences in flower size and indumentum.

Meadows, mires, hillsides, ravines; 900--2400 m. W Sichuan, N Xinjiang [Afghanistan, Mongolia, Russia, Uzbekistan; Europe].