城口薹草 cheng kou tai cao

Carex luctuosa f. brevisquama K. T. Fu; C. luctuosa f. mucronata K. T. Fu.

Rhizome short. Culms 30-100 cm tall, acutely trigonous, erect, rather stiff, scabrous, clothed at base with dark brown sheaths disintegrating into reticulate fibers. Leaves shorter than culm, blades linear, 3-5 mm wide, margins scabrous. Lower involucral bracts leaflike, surpassing inflorescence, sheathless, upper setaceous, shorter than inflorescence, sheathless. Spikes 4-6; terminal spike male or gynaecandrous, narrowly cylindric, 3-3.5 cm; lateral spikes female, cylindric, 20-30 × 4-5 mm, densely many flowered, upper spikes approximate, sessile, lowest spike remote, with short peduncle. Female glumes dark reddish, oblong, 2.5-2.8 mm, pale yellow 3-veined costa forming a mucro at apex or apex obtuse. Utricles light brown-green, slightly shorter than or equaling glume, obovate, slightly biconvex, 2.3-2.8 mm, nerveless except for 2 marginal costas, apex abruptly contracted into a smooth short beak, orifice 2-toothed. Nutlets obovoid, slightly biconvex, ca. 1.6 mm; stigmas 2. Fl. and fr. Jul.

● Watersides, wet places, slopes, roadsides, grasslands; 1000-2600 m. Gansu, Shaanxi, Sichuan.