Plants perennial, 5--15(--18) cm tall. Rhizome short, thick. Stems terete, 0.3--0.5 mm in diam. Cataphylls 1--3, reddish to brownish, shiny, septate, apex aristate. Basal leaf blade flat, or tubelike when margin involute, 3--13 cm, apex acute. Cauline leaves ca. 0.8 cm; leaf sheath reddish brown, margin apically scarious, auricles present, inconspicuous, or absent; leaf blade linear. Inflorescences terminal; head solitary, hemispheric, 0.9--1.5 cm in diam., (2--)4--6(--9)-flowered; bracts 3--5, chestnut brown, ovate to ovate-lanceolate, 5--7 mm. Perianth segments yellowish, lanceolate, 3.5--7 × 1--1.5 mm, subequal, apex obtuse. Stamens 6; filaments usually 5--7 mm; anthers usually 2--2.6 mm. Style 2--3.5 mm; stigma 1, capitate to subglobose, 0.4--0.6 mm in diam. Capsule dark brown to chestnut brown, trigonous ovoid, 2--3.3 mm, 1-loculed, apex obtuse, beaked; beak 1.2--1.5 mm. Seeds sawdustlike, 1--1.5 mm, usually appendaged. Fl. Jun--Jul, fr. Jul--Aug.

Wet places mainly in high mountains, steep mountain slopes; 2100--4200 m. Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan [Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sikkim].