Plants perennial, 35--40 cm tall. Rhizome short. Stems terete, 1.7--2 mm in diam., striate. Basal leaves 2, cauline leaves 2; leaf sheath 2.5--4 cm, auricles rounded; leaf blade terete, 1.5--10 cm, apex acute to acuminate. Inflorescences with involucral bract leaflike, shorter than inflorescence; heads 2, hemispheric, ca. 1.2 cm in diam., 10--15-flowered; bracts 3--5, straw-colored, ovate-lanceolate, 5--7 mm, veins 1--3 at middle, apex acuminate. Pedicels 1.6--2 mm. Bracteole usually 1 subtending each flower. Perianth segments straw-colored, lanceolate, apex acuminate; outer segments boatlike, 4.2--4.8 mm; inner segments 5.2--5.8 × ca. 1 mm. Stamens 6; filaments brown, 6.2--7.2 mm; anthers 2.2--2.5 mm. Ovary 1-loculed. Style brown, ca. 0.6 mm; stigmas ca. 1.4 mm. Capsule (immature) trigonous ovoid, ca. 5 mm, apex usually narrowed into a ca. 1.3 mm beak. Seeds (immature) appendaged at both ends. Fl. Jul--Aug, fr. Aug--Sep.

* Sunny areas in mountains. Sichuan.