n = c. 26

A very small, frequently branching, creeping perennial herb forming small diffuse patches. Rhizomes on the soil surface, very slender, less than 0.5 mm diam., green, soft, sparsely pilose; branches common, at the frequent flowering nodes and sts also at 1-3 nodes immediately behind; leaves 1-several at the apex but mostly distant, 0.5-1.0 cm apart. Short shoots variable, occ. few but us. at most rhizome nodes, often converted into rhizomes. Roots very slender and weak, up to 0.3 mm diam. Leaves 1-pinnatifid, 0.4-2.0 × 0.2-0.4 cm; blade 0.3-1.5 cm, obovate or narrowly so, thin, green, without brown pigment, glabrous or sparsely pilose, midrib not raised on ventral surface; pinnae 6-10 pairs, distal ones close-set or overlapping and cut ca. 2/3 to rhachis, proximal ones distant and cut to rhachis, oblong or obovate, obtuse and minutely mucronate; teeth 0-3, on distal margins of proximal pinnae, cut up to ½ across pinna, narrow, acute. Peduncles borne on rhizomes, us. shorter than leaves, 0.3-1.0 cm, nude, pilose, erect at anthesis, sts later bending 180° to bury the fruiting head among leaves. Monoecious. Heads minute, 1.5-2.0 mm wide; surface convex; involucre hemispherical; phyllaries ca. 20 in 2 subequal rows, oblong or obovate red-green, sparsely villous, with a wide sts brown-tipped scarious margin, not growing after anthesis; pistillate florets 20-40 in ca. 2 rows, ca. 1.0 mm long, straight, green; corolla equal in length and width, with equal very shallow teeth; staminate florets fewer, 5-7. Achenes up to 1.0 × 0.5 mm, slightly compressed, in section almost round, green-brown, shallowly wrinkled. Flowers in summer.

Perpusilla, diffuse repens. Rhizomata tenuia, minus quam 0.5 mm diam. Folia 0.4-2.0 cm × 2-4 mm; pinnarum 5-10 paria, distales pinnae confertae vel imbricatae et versus rhachim non plus quam circa 2/3 incisae, proximales distantiores et ad rhachim incisae. Capitula perparva, viridia.