膨囊薹草 peng nang tai cao

Rhizome stoloniferous. Culms 15-70 cm tall, slender, trigonous, clothed at base with purple-brown sheaths. Leaves nearly equaling culm, blades linear, 2-5 mm wide, flat, soft. Involucral bracts leaflike, longer than inflorescence. Spikes 3-5; terminal spike gynaecandrous, oblong, 5-8 mm; lateral spikes female, ovate or oblong, 5-9 mm; upper spikes with short peduncles or subsessile, lowest with peduncle 1-4 cm. Female glumes dark purple or dark brown, broadly ovate, ca. 1.2 mm, 1-veined, apex obtuse or subacute. Utricles yellowish green, longer than glume, obovate or obovate-elliptic, trigonous, 2-2.2 mm, inflated, veined, apex abruptly contracted into a short beak, orifice emarginate or truncate. Nutlets obovate, trigonous, 1.2-1.7 mm; style short; stigmas 3. Fl. and fr. Jul-Aug.

Mountain slopes, grasslands, forests, riversides; 2800-4100 m. Gansu, Henan, Hubei, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Shanxi, W Sichuan, SE Xizang, NW Yunnan [Bhutan, India, Japan, Korea, Nepal].