沟囊薹草 gou nang tai cao

Rhizome creeping, woody. Culms 18-30 cm tall, very slender, smooth, clothed with purple-red sheaths at base. Leaves surpassing culm, blades linear, 4-6 mm wide, flat, margins scabrous. Involucral bracts shortly bladed, long sheathing. Spikes 3, distant; terminal spike male, cylindric, 1.5-2 cm, peduncles 0.5-2 cm; remaining spikes female, ovate, 7-12 mm, densely several flowered, peduncles enclosed. Female glumes yellow-white, oblong, 5-5.5 cm, green 3-veined costa excurrent into a mucro at rounded apex. Utricles green, longer than glume, oblong, trigonous, 7-7.5 mm, subleathery, upper pubescent, veined at base, base long stipitate, apex abruptly contracted into a long beak, orifice 2-toothed. Nutlets tightly enveloped, elliptic, ca. 4 mm, canaliculate adaxially, 2 lateral faces slightly concave, base long stipitate; style base thickened; stigmas 3. Fl. and fr. May.

● Forested slopes; ca. 2500 m. W Sichuan, Yunnan.