Plants perennial, 8--25 cm tall. Rhizome brown. Stems terete, 0.6--0.9 mm in diam. Cataphylls few, gray-yellow to chestnut brown. Basal and cauline leaves 1--3; leaf sheath auricles well developed; leaf blade linear, 0.6--3 cm × 0.6--1 mm, apex obtuse to expanded into a callus. Inflorescences terminal; head solitary, hemispheric to obconical, 0.8--1.2 cm in diam., 4--8-flowered; bracts 4 or 5, chestnut brown, ovate-lanceolate, 5.5--7 × 1.2--2.5 mm, equaling or slightly longer than head, veins 3--5, center thickened, apex acuminate. Perianth segments whitish to chestnut brown, lanceolate, ca. 5 × 1--1.5 mm, subequal; outer segments boat-shaped; inner segments flat, apex acuminate. Filaments blackish chestnut brown, ca. 6 mm, apex tapered to a whitish thread; anthers 2--2.5(--3) mm. Ovary ovoid. Style 2--3 mm; stigmas short. Capsule brown, trigonous ovoid, 3.2--4.5 mm, 1-loculed, apex mucronate. Seeds ovoid, ca. 0.7 mm; appendages 2, 0.5--0.8 mm. Fl. Jul--Aug, fr. Aug--Sep.

* Mountains; 3400--4000 m. Gansu, Shaanxi, Sichuan.