Stemless. Leaves 4–10, radical, usually erect, 1/3–3 in. long, 1/2–2 1/2 lin. broad, linear, acute, flat, 3–11-nerved, glabrous. Peduncles 2–16 to a plant, 1–8 1/2 in. long, slender, acutely 3–4-angled, glabrous; their sheaths 1/3–3 in. long, acute, rather inflated, glabrous. Heads 1 1/4–2 lin. in diam., globose, monœcious, with the male flowers usually central, greyish-white. Involucral-bracts much shorter than the young heads, ultimately reflexed, 1/2– 2/3 lin. long, 1/4– 1/2 lin. broad, oblong or subquadrate, very obtuse, fuscous, glabrous. Flowering-bracts 1/2– 2/3 lin. long, 1/4 lin. broad, cuneate-oblong or cuneate-obovate, obtuse or subacute, dark fuscous, densely covered with short white hairs on the apical part. Receptacle glabrous. Female flowers very numerous, pedicellate. Sepals 3, slightly unequal, 1/3– 1/2 lin. long, 1/8 lin. broad, oblanceolate or cuneate-oblong, obtuse or subacute, two of them more boat-shaped than the third and sometimes gibbous on the back, dark fuscous, bearded with a few white hairs on the keel and at the apex. Petals 3, arising close to the sepals, 1/3– 1/2 lin. long, 1/8 lin. broad, linear-spathulate or cuneate-oblanceolate, subobtuse, whitish, tipped with a few white hairs and with a very minute black gland just below the apex. Male flowers rather few. Sepals 1/3 lin. long, more or less connate into a funnel-shaped body open down one side, trifid or obtusely 3-lobed at the apex, fuscous, ciliate with white hairs. Stipes between the sepals and petals 1/5– 1/4 lin. long. Petals rudimentary or one of them about 1/5 lin. long, ciliate. Seeds 1/8– 1/5 lin. long, ellipsoid, brown, thinly covered with very minute white papillæ.