Delicate tufted annual.. Leaves few in a basal rosette, linear, 2–3.5 cm. long, 1–2.5 mm. wide, subacute.. Scapes 1–5, 7–18 cm. high, erect in a narrow bunch, very slender and slightly flexuous; sheaths equalling the leaves.. Capitulum globose, 3–5 mm. diameter, grey, hard, glabrous, slightly glossy; involucral bracts small, straw-coloured, obovate-oblong, rounded, 1.4–1.5 mm. long, tough, reflexing at maturity; floral bracts oblanceolate, flat, incurving, acute to cuspidate, numerous, the flowers visible between; receptacle villous; flowers 1.2–1.3 mm. long.. Male flowers: sepals flushed dark grey, connate into an infundibular spathe with free, rounded, erose tips, glabrous, the laterals lightly keeled; petals small, included within the calyx, glabrous, the laterals with a rudimentary gland; anthers black.. Female flowers: sepals dimorphic, grey, the laterals deeply concave, the keel gibbous with a broad spongy wing, narrowed to the base, tip subacute, glabrous or a few long hyaline hairs near the base inside, median sepal linear to oblanceolate, unwinged; petals slightly unequal, narrowly oblanceolate-oblong, laterals glandular, the median eglandular.. Seeds ellipsoid, 0.3 mm. long, brown, glossy, faintly white-reticulate.
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