Plants perennial, 15--40 cm tall. Rhizome of long, subterranean runners. Stem usually solitary, terete, 2--3.5 mm in diam. Cataphylls few. Basal leaves 2--4, cauline leaf absent or 1; leaf sheath auricles absent; leaf blade flat, 6--25 cm × 3--6 mm, margin usually involute. Inflorescences with involucral bracts 1 or 2, leaflike, usually longer than inflorescence; heads 2--8, hemispheric, 7--9 mm in diam. at anthesis, 4--10-flowered; bracts 2 or 3, lanceolate, usually shorter than flowers. Pedicels ca. 2 mm. Perianth segments dark brown to chestnut brown, narrowly ovate to lanceolate, 4--5 mm, unequal with outer ones slightly longer than inner, apex acuminate. Stamens 6; filaments ca. 2 mm; anthers ca. 1 mm. Style 1--1.5 mm; stigmas 2--3 mm. Capsule trigonous ellipsoid, 6--7 mm, 3-septate, base lighter colored, apex reddish brown, tapered to an acute tip. Seeds ca. 1 mm, both ends appendaged; appendages white, ca. 1 mm. Fl. Jul--Aug, fr. Aug--Sep. 2 n = 40, 60.

Wet meadows or swamps in mountainous areas; 2100--3100 m. Gansu, Hebei, Jilin, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Sichuan, Yunnan [Russia (Siberia); Europe, North America].