南投谷精草 nan tou gu jing cao

Leaves linear, 2.5--4 cm, 1--1.8(--3) mm wide at middle, veins 6--9(--11). Scapes numerous, 11--15(--20) cm, 4- or 5-ribbed; sheath 2.5--4 cm; receptacle glabrous, sparsely pubescent, or densely villous; heads blackish, subglobose, 3.5--5 mm in diam.; involucral bracts straw-colored, elliptic to obovate, 1.6--1.9(--2.3) × 1.4--1.5 mm, rigid, glabrescent; floral bracts obovate to oblanceolate, abaxially white clavate hairy toward apex. Male flowers: sepals spathelike, split on abaxial side, apex 3-lobed to 3-parted and white clavate hairy; petals 3, oblong-triangular, equal or anterior one slightly larger than others, white clavate hairy toward apex, gland brownish, gray, black, inconspicuous, or absent; anthers black. Female flowers: sepals 3, dusky, free, boatlike, abaxially narrowly keeled and white clavate hairy toward apex; petals 3, oblanceolate-linear, membranous, hairy, gland present or absent; ovary 3-loculed; style 3-cleft. Seeds ovoid, 0.3--0.5 mm; testa hexagonally reticulate, prickles 1--6 per cell, linear. Fl. and fr. Aug--Dec.

* Swamps, rice fields, ponds; near sea level to 2500 m. Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Taiwan, Yunnan, Zhejiang.