贡山薹草 gong shan tai cao

Rhizome short and thick, ligneous. Culms tufted, 70-80 cm tall, slender, obtusely trigonous, smooth. Leaves basal and cauline, basal leaves much shorter than culm, cauline leaves rather long, blades 2-3 mm wide, flat, scabrous on veins and margins; sheaths up to 4 cm. Involucral bracts sheathed, lower involucral bract blades leaflike, upper blades setaceous, uppermost bract nearly bladeless; sheaths 0.5-1 cm. Spikes numerous, usually 3 or 4 in an involucral bract sheath, androgynous, male part shorter than female part, with few male flowers at upper part, loosely more than 10-flowered at lower part, linear, 12-25 mm, thinly pedunculate. Female glumes brown, ovate, ca. 2.8 mm, membranous, 1-costate, apex acute, muticous or sometimes mucronate. Utricles brown, suberect, longer than glume, elliptic or narrowly elliptic, plano-convex, 3-3.5 mm, membranous, thinly several veined, loosely white hispidulous on veins and margins, base gradually narrowed to a short stipe, apex attenuate into a slightly long beak ca. 1.5 mm, orifice 2-toothed. Nutlets yellowish, tightly enveloped, elliptic, compressed biconvex, ca. 1.5 mm; style shorter than utricle, base slightly thickened; stigmas 2. Fl. and fr. Aug-Sep.

● Mountain slopes, forests; ca. 2500 m. Xizang (Bomi), Yunnan (Gongshan).