南川薹草 nan chuan tai cao

Rhizome obliquely ascending, thick, woody, rigid. Culms lateral, 20-35 cm tall, compressed trigonous, smooth, clothed at base with dark brown sheaths disintegrating into fibers. Leaves surpassing culm, blades green, linear, 1.2-1.8 mm wide, flat, upper margins scabrous. Involucral bracts shortly bladed, scabrous on margins, long sheathing. Spikes 4 or 5; terminal spike male, clavate-cylindric, 2.2-3 cm; lateral spikes 3 or 4, female, occasionally with few male flowers at apex, cylindric, 4-5.5 × ca. 1.5 cm, densely flowered; peduncles erect. Female glumes lanceolate, dark green 3-veined costa excurrent into a mucro. Utricles yellow-green, slightly longer than glume, obliquely patent, subglobose (excluding beak), 6-7 mm (including beak), membranous, sparsely pubescent, with very prominent veins, base shortly stipitate, apex abruptly contracted into a cylindric long beak, orifice 2-toothed. Nutlets dark purple-black, tightly enveloped, subglobose, ca. 2 mm, trigonous with angles constricted at middle, faces concave at base, apex with a very short beak; style base thickened; stigmas 3. Fl. Jun.

● Grassy rocky places; 2000-2100 m. Chongqing.