Plants perennial, 22--30 cm tall. Rhizome short. Stems subterete, 1--2 mm in diam. Basal leaves 2, cauline leaves 2; leaf sheath 3--7 cm, auricles absent; leaf blade linear to linear-lanceolate, flat, 8--25 cm × 3--6(--7) mm, margin not membranous, or narrowly membranous and serrulate or tasseled, apex acuminate. Inflorescences with involucral bracts usually 2 or 3, leaflike, longer than inflorescence, basal one 2.5--15 cm; heads 1--6, 1.2--2 cm in diam., 4--12-flowered. Perianth segments yellowish white, lanceolate, 4.5--7 × ca. 1.2 mm, subequal, membranous, apex acute. Stamens 6; filaments 4--5 mm; anthers 2--2.5 mm. Style 1.5--4 mm; stigmas 0.3--1.5 mm. Capsule orange at maturity, shiny, ovoid to ellipsoid, 4.5--5.4 mm, 1-loculed, apex mucronate. Seeds ellipsoid, ca. 1 mm; appendages 2, white, caudate, 1.5--2 mm. Fl. Jul--Aug, fr. Aug--Sep.

Open forest margins, moist meadows, grasslands on high mountains, rocky areas by ravines; 2100--4700 m. Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan [Bhutan, India, Sikkim].