Small, cushion-forming perennial herb with a branched caudex; stems erect or ascending, 2.5-6(-10) cm high, hirtellous, mostly obscured by the opposite leaves; stipules lanceolate, scarious, 5-8 mm long and generally equaling the leaves, to 1.5 mm wide, apex acuminate and often deeply bifid; leaves leathery, linear with a pungently mucronate apex, 5-9 mm long and ca. 1 mm wide, hirtellous; inflorescence a densely congested, 3-7(-10) flowered, terminal cyme; flowers small, inconspicuous, ca. 4 mm across, without petals, with a short, campanulate hypanthium; sepals 5, erect, puberulent, 1.5-2 mm long and ca. 1 mm wide, green or red-brown, oblong, with white, scarious margins 0.2-0.3 mm wide, apex with a stout, scabrous, white, divergent awn 1.5-2 mm long; stamens 5, shorter than the sepals; staminodes 5, minute, 0.2-0.4 mm long; carpels 2, connate, with 2 distinct styles shorter than the stamens, 0.5-0.7 mm long; fruit a utricle, 1.2-1.3 mm long. Flowers April to October.