圆坚果薹草 yuan jian guo tai cao

Rhizome slightly elongate. Culms loosely tufted, 35-55 cm tall, medium thick, obtusely trigonous, smooth, several brown and bladeless sheathed at base, sheaths eventually disintegrating into fibers. Leaves sheathed, lower blades shorter than culm, upper blades nearly equaling culm, blades 3-4 mm wide, flat, ± stiff, scabrous on veins and margins; sheaths 3-4 cm. Involucral bracts sheathed or upper 2 or 3 nearly not sheathed, longer than spikes. Spikes 3-5, androgynous, with few male flowers at upper part, densely with many female flowers at lower part, oblong or broadly ovate, 0.8-1.5 cm; lowermost spike with a ca. 7 cm peduncle, upper 2 or 3 spikes almost sessile. Female glumes pallid or pale cinnamon-colored, ovate or narrowly ovate, ca. 3 mm, membranous, green 3-veined, apex acuminate, mucronate or aristate. Utricles yellowish green or stramineous, longer than glume, suberect, suborbicular, plano-convex, ca. 4 mm, membranous, glabrous, 9-13-veined abaxially, base broadly cuneate, apex abruptly contracted into a medium-sized to long beak, orifice shortly 2-toothed. Nutlets stramineous, tightly enveloped, broadly obovate or suborbicular, plano-convex, ca. 2 mm, base broadly cuneate; style persistent, base thickened; stigmas 2. Fl. and fr. Jun-Sep.

● Thickets on mountain slopes or in ravines, dry places in grasslands, rarely at watersides, in ditches; 1700-1900 m. S Sichuan, C Yunnan (Kunming).