Perennial herb with a short thick rootstock and an adventitious root system at maturity. Leaves in a rosette, lanceolate to elliptic, 3–10 cm long, 0.4–1 cm wide, with a dull sheen when fresh, acute, glabrous or rarely sparsely and unevenly pubescent, sometimes with conspicuous transverse bands of hairs, entire or with a few obscure teeth; 3-veined with the midrib prominent on the abaxial surface; narrowing gradually toward the broad and slightly scarious base which obscures the adaxial tuft of golden-brown hairs. Scapes 2–8 in number, 1–2 mm long at flowering but elongating after flowering to become longer than the leaves, pubescent particularly distally. Spikes at first hidden among the leaf bases, subcapitate, with 3–9 flowers, with tufts of hairs between the flowers. Bracts ovate, 1–2 mm long, 0.8–1.5 mm wide, glabrous, acute + keeled, the carina about 1/4 of the bract width. Sepals subequal, narrow-elliptic, 2.3–3 mm long, 0.8–1 mm wide, glabrous, acute, the carina narrow and herbaceous. Corolla: tube 3 mm long; lobes elliptic-ovate, c. 1.8 mm long, 0.8 mm wide. Style 5–6 mm long. Ovary bilocular with 2 ovules in each loculus. Capsule ellipsoidal to globular, 3–4 mm long, 2–3 mm diam., the upper portion hardened, the lower portion membranous. Seeds up to 2 in each loculus, elliptic, 1.8 mm long, 1 mm wide, pale yellow-brown, biconvex with a superficial hilum and a thin mucilaginous layer.
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