Perennial herb with a thick rootstock up to 2 cm long and c. 5 mm thick, with an entirely adventitious root-system at maturity. Leaves all basal, in a rosette, spreading close to the ground, oblanceolate-elliptic to obovate-elliptic, (2–) 6–8 cm long, (0.7–)1–2(–2.5) cm wide, obtuse or acute, entire, with a satin surface when fresh, 3-veined but the lateral veins somewhat obscure, tapering gradually to an indistinct petiole with a broadened base, the axil villous with a conspicuous tuft of yellow-brown hairs. Scapes 8–16 cm long, pubescent. Spikes compact, ovoid to cylindrical, 1.5–3 cm long, tinged with purple. Bracts concave, ovate, 2–2.5 mm long, 1.5–2 mm wide, obtuse, membranous toward the margin, mostly glabrous but sometimes with a few long hairs at the apex, obtusely keeled, the carina thickened and often purplish; the axil with a tuft of hairs. Sepals elliptic, almost equal, 1.5–1.8 mm long, 0.8–1 mm wide, glabrous, + keeled, the thickened carina about 1/2 of the total width, the margins membranous. Corolla: tube 1.5–1.8 mm long; lobes broad ovate-deltoid, acute, 1–1.2 mm long, with a distinct midvein. Style 3.5–4 mm long. Ovary bilocular, each loculus with 2 ovules but one loculus with a swelling of the placenta near the apex separating a minute sterile false-loculus. Capsule broad-ovoid 2.5–2.8 mm long, with a blunt mucro at the apex; the upper section hardened, the lower section membranous. Seeds dark brown, oblong to elliptic, 1.5 mm long, with a thin mucilaginous layer.
Moist depressions in the alpine and subalpine zones, on peaty or gravelly soils of creek banks, edges of bogs and shallow depressions in alpine and subalpine grassland.
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