Plants perennial, tufted, 6.5--25 cm tall. Rhizome filiform, short. Stems thin. Cataphylls absent to 2. Basal leaves 2 or 3, cauline leaf absent or 1; leaf sheath greenish to reddish, auricles well developed, purplish red, obtuse, 0.7--1.2 mm; leaf blade linear, 3--12 cm, apex acute. Inflorescences terminal; head solitary, 1--1.8 cm in diam., (2--)4--8(--11)-flowered; bracts 3--5, often purplish red, broadly ovate to ovate-lanceolate, apex acute; basal bract erect, leaflike, longer than head, 1--4 cm; other bracts subequaling head. Perianth segments straw-colored, lanceolate, 4--6 × 1.5--2 mm, membranous, apex obtuse. Stamens 6; filaments 5--6 mm; anthers 2.2--3.3 mm. Style 1.5--2 mm; stigmas 0.8--1 mm. Capsule chestnut brown at maturity, ovoid, 2.6--3 mm, 1-loculed, base narrowed, apex beaked; beak 0.8--1.5 mm; style persistent. Seeds spindlelike, ca. 1 mm, appendaged; appendages 2, white. Fl. Jul--Aug, fr. Aug--Sep.
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