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A creeping perennial herb forming a loosely matted turf. Rhizomes at or near soil surface, green or dark, flexible, villous; branches uncommon, us. single at flowering nodes; leaves in two rows, single at apex, 0.5-2.0 cm apart. Short shoots alternate on both sides of rhizome, with up to 6 clustered leaves, rarely converted into rhizomes with distant leaves. Roots slender and weak, up to 0.6 mm diam. Leaves 1-pinnatifid, 1-5 × 0.4-1.0 cm; blade 1-4 cm, obovate, ± coriaceous, dark green usually with brown pigment over proximal or all pinnae, sparsely villous; midrib slightly raised on proximal part of ventral surface; pinnae 4-10 pairs, equidistant, not overlapping, cut to rhachis, oblong to orbicular; teeth few or up to 10 per pinna, confined to outer margin or extending around distal margin as well, cut 1/6—½ across pinna, triangular, acuminate with a sharp pale sts deciduous point ± obscured by a tuft of parallel hairs. Peduncles us. borne on rhizomes, ca. equal to leaves, 1-4 cm, nude or with one simple bract, pilose. Dioecious. Pistillate heads 3-5 mm diam., up to 10 mm in fruit; surface convex; involucre urceolate; phyllaries 15-20 in ca. 3 unequal rows, broadly elliptic, green, without evident veins, ± villous, with a broad transparent brown-tipped scarious margin; inner phyllaries grow after anthesis to enclose the subglobose fruiting head; florets 20-70, ca. 2-5 mm long, curved, yellow-green; corolla slightly longer than wide, with unequal teeth. Staminate heads 4-6 mm diam., involucre hemispherical; phyllaries 5-10 in 1-2 subequal rows, not growing after anthesis; florets slightly more numerous. Achenes up to 1.9 × 1.0 mm, slightly compressed, in cross-section almost round or irregularly angled, with a pale unwrinkled papery surface turning brown and smooth. Flowers predominantly in spring.