Plants perennial. Rhizome internodes short. Stems 7--15 cm × ca. 1 mm. Cataphylls usually 2, closely embracing stem, yellow, chestnut brown, or reddish brown, sheathlike, 1.5--5 cm; leaf blade reduced to an awnlike rudiment. Inflorescences pseudolateral, dense or lax, 3--6(--10)-flowered; involucral bract erect, seemingly a continuation of stem, terete, (0.3--)1--1.5 × as long as stem, apex sharply acute. Flowers pedicellate. Bracteoles 2, broadly ovate, apex obtuse. Perianth segments greenish, straw-colored with age, lanceolate, unequal to subequal; outer segments 2.6--5 × ca. 1 mm; inner segments ca. 2.5 × 1 mm. Stamens 6, ca. 2/3 as long as inner perianth segments; filaments ca. 1.1 mm; anthers oblong, 0.5--0.6 mm. Ovary obliquely ovoid, 3-loculed. Style very short or inconspicuous. Capsule yellowish green to pale brown, trigonous ovoid to trigonous globose, subequaling or longer than perianth, 3-septate, apex obtuse to acuminate, mucronate. Seeds pale chestnut brown, obliquely ovoid, ca. 0.5 mm. Fl. Aug, fr. Sep. 2 n = 84.

River valleys, near water; ca. 2500 m. Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Xinjiang [Japan; Europe, North America].