Herb 5–12.5 cm high. Leaves filiform, 2.5–5 cm long, 0.08–0.15 cm wide, 1–3-nerved. Peduncle 4.5–11.5 cm long. Sheath 15–25 mm long. Flower heads globular, often squarrose, 2.5–4.5 mm long, 3.5–4 mm wide. Involucral bracts straw-yellow to hyaline, elliptic to narrowly lanceolate, 1.75–3 mm long, 0.6–0.8 mm wide, acuminate to acute, glabrous, strongly reflexed at maturity. Floral bracts hyaline to black at apex, lanceolate, 1.4–2.5 mm long, 0.4–0.8 mm wide, acuminate with arista 0.5–1 mm long, glabrous or pubescent with sparse white hairs. Receptacle densely pilose, convex. Male flowers 0.8–1 mm long; sepals 3, fused but split on one side to form a spathe which is sometimes 3-lobed, hyaline to black, 0.9–1.4 mm long, 0.43–0.53 mm wide, truncate, glabrous or pubescent with apical fringe of white hairs; petals 3 or obscure, hyaline, equal, triangular, obtuse to acute, glabrous; stamens 6; anthers black. Female flowers: sepals 3, hyaline to black, dimorphic, navicular and geniculate, lacking dorsal keel or wing, 0.6–1.2 mm long, 0.1–0.2 mm wide, acute, glabrous or pubescent with white hairs in apical fringe and median region; median sepal narrowly elliptic, 0.6–1.2 mm long, 0.1–0.3 mm wide, acute, pubescent with white hairs in apical fringe and median region or glabrous; petals 3, hyaline, equal, linear to spathulate, 0.8–1.2 mm long, 0.06–0.2 mm wide, acute to acuminate, pubescent with white hairs in apical fringe or margins or adaxially; ovary 3-locular. Seeds 0.35–0.4 mm long, 0.2–0.3 mm wide; epidermal cells with even wall thickenings.
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