Japan Flora: Slender stemless annual; leaves narrowly linear, 5-7 cm. long, 2 mm. wide, gradually narrowed to an acute apex, 5-nerved; peduncles few to several, about 10 cm. long, soft, 3-ribbed; heads obovoid, 2 mm. long, 2-3 mm. across, few-flowcred; involucral bracts 4 or 5, broadly elliptic to obovate, obtuse-tipped, nearly as long as the disc flowers, olive-black above; receptacle glabrous; pistillate flowers with obovate, glabrous, rounded bracts, the calyx an olive-black spathe, 2- or 3Jobed, ciliolate on the upper margin, glabrous outside, pilose inside, the petals 3, free, lanceolate, glabrous outside, pilose inside, the stigmas 2 or 3.  Peat bogs.

Hokkaido (Kushiro Prov.). The typical phase always has 2-lobed pistillate calyces and 2 stigmas.