Herbs, perennial, cespitose, green to olive or dark olive when dry, to 3.3 dm, not glaucous; rhizomes scarcely discernable. Stems simple, often with purplish tinge apically, 1-2 mm wide, glabrous, margins entire, similar in color and texture to stem body. Leaf blades glabrous, bases not persistent in fibrous tufts. Inflorescences borne singly; spathes tinged purplish, at least on hyaline margins, glabrous, keels entire; outer 25.4-44 mm, 10.9-23.3 mm longer than inner, usually tapering evenly towards apex, margins basally connate 1-2.5 mm; inner with keel evenly curved to straight, hyaline margins 0.3-0.6 mm wide, apex acute to acuminate, ending 0.3-1.6 mm proximal to green apex. Flowers: tepals pale blue to whitish, bases yellow; outer tepals 5.7-10.3 mm, apex rounded, aristate; filaments connate ± entirely, glabrous or slightly stipitate-glandular basally; ovary similar in color to foliage. Capsules dark brown to black, slightly turbinate to subglobose, 2.8-6.5 mm; pedicel usually ascending. Seeds globose to obconic, lacking obvious depression, 0.7-1.2 mm, granular. 2n = 32.

Flowering summer. Southerly exposures in steppe/heath vegetation; 30--300 m; Greenland.