芒鳞薹草 mang lin tai cao

Rhizome short, ligneous. Culms tufted, 25-45 cm tall, rather slender, compressed triquetrous, smooth, with few bladeless sheaths. Leaves shorter than culm, blades ca. 1.5 mm wide, flat, margins scabrous. Lower involucral bracts leaflike, shorter than inflorescence, sheaths 7-9 mm, upper blades setaceous. Spikes 2 or 3, androgynous, male part shorter than female part, ovate-lanceolate or narrowly cylindric, 1-3 cm × 4-5 mm, with slender peduncle. Female glumes brownish yellow or stramineous, ovate or oblong-ovate, 3-4.5 mm, membranous, 1-veined, upper margins white hyaline, apex mucronate or shortly aristate. Utricles yellow-green, longer than glume or slightly shorter than glume at lower part of spike, elliptic or elliptic-obovate, trigonous, 3-3.5 mm, inconspicuously veined, base cuneate, apex attenuate into a medium-sized to long beak, orifice shallowly 2-toothed. Nutlets yellow-brown, rather loosely enveloped, elliptic-obovate, trigonous, ca. 1.5 mm; stigmas 3.

● Grasslands, rock beaches; 3500-3800 m. NC Sichuan (Maowen).