Herb 3–26 cm high. Leaves lanceolate, 4.5–18 cm long, 0.2–0.65 cm wide, 5–7-nerved. Peduncle 3–26 cm long, with 8–10 ribs. Sheath 18–25 mm long. Flower heads globular, 4–10 mm long, 4–8 mm wide. Involucral bracts hyaline, broadly obovate, 2–2.2 mm long, 1–1.8 mm wide, obtuse, glabrous, strongly reflexed at maturity. Floral bracts hyaline, obovate to spathulate, 2–3 mm long, 0.9–1.75 mm wide, acute, glabrous or pubescent with easily deciduous white hairs. Receptacle glabrous or sparsely hairy, conical. Male flowers 1.5–2.5 mm long; sepals 3, fused but split on one side to form a spathe which is 3-lobed, often deeply so as to appear free; also occasionally with one lobe more or less free and other two joined higher, hyaline, 1.5–2.75 mm long, 0.75–1 mm wide, obtuse, pubescent with white hairs in apical fringe; petals 3, hyaline, equal, oblong, acute or obtuse, pubescent with white hairs in apical fringe; stamens 6; anthers black. Female flowers: sepals 3 (rarely appearing as 2), hyaline, equal, navicular, fleshy, dorsally keeled, 1.5–2.5 mm long, 0.5–1 mm wide, acute, glabrous or pubescent, with white hairs externally on apical half; petals 3, hyaline, fleshy, equal, oblong and abruptly narrowed into stipe, 1.75–3.25 mm long, 0.5–1 mm wide, obtuse, glabrous; ovary 3–locular. Seeds 0.6–0.7 mm long, 0.4–0.53 mm wide; epidermal cell walls with longitudinal rows of hair or peg-like projections, often with a terminal cap and often erect.
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