Leaves linear, 3.5--5.5 cm, 1.5--2 mm wide at middle, veins 7--9. Scapes ca. 12, 6--9(--20) cm, 4-ribbed; receptacle densely villous; heads ovoid, 4--5 × 5--5.5 mm; involucral bracts ca. 12, slightly reflexed, pale straw-colored, lanceolate to rhombic, 2.2--2.9 × 0.6--1.2 mm, membranous, glabrous; floral bracts oblanceolate-boatlike, glabrous, apex caudate. Male flowers: sepals spathelike, 1.1--1.7 mm, glabrescent, apex 3-lobed, lateral lobes slightly keeled; petals 1 or 2, small or reduced and nearly invisible, glabrous, rarely 1 bearing a gland; stamens 5(or 6), anthers black. Female flowers: sepals 2 or 3, free, posterior one flat, linear, narrow, sometimes reduced and concealed by villous hairs of receptacle, glabrous or margin with a few hairs, lateral sepals oblanceolate-boatlike, 1.2--1.7 mm, abaxially broadly winged; petals absent; ovary 3-loculed; style 3-cleft. Seeds narrowly ovoid, 0.4--0.5 mm; testa reticulate, prickles thin. Fl. and fr. Sep--Dec.

Damp soil; ca. 1100 m. Guangdong, Guangxi, Jiangxi [Cambodia, India, Japan, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam].