假头序薹草 jia tou xu tai cao

Rhizome short, without stolons. Culms tufted, 12-15 cm tall, slender, triquetrous, clothed with brown and shortly bladed sheaths at base. Upper leaves longer than culm, lower leaves shorter than culm, blades 2-5 mm wide, flat, scabrous on veins and margins, slightly shortly sheathed, upper and lower sheaths ± overlapping. Involucral bracts leaflike, congregated at top of culm, longer than inflorescence, scabrous on veins of adaxial surface and margins, smooth on abaxial surface, rather shortly sheathed. Spikes 4 or 5, congregated at top of culm; terminal spike male, linear, 1-1.5 cm, shortly pedunculate; lateral spikes female, narrowly oblong, 0.7-1.5 cm, several to 15-flowered, shortly pedunculate. Female glumes brown-yellow, orbicular-ovate, ca. 2 mm, membranous, 1-veined, apex acute, sometimes mucronate. Utricles yellow-green, yellow-brown in maturity, obliquely patent, longer than glume, lanceolate or broadly lanceolate, trigonous, ca. 2.5 mm, membranous, glabrous or sometimes laxly ciliate on margins near beak, abaxially distinctly 2-veined laterally, base cuneate, apex gradually narrowed to a rather short beak, orifice shortly 2-toothed. Nutlets brown-yellow, tightly enveloped, lanceolate, ca. 2 mm; style rather short, base not thickened; stigmas 3. Fl. and fr. Jun-Jul.

● Thickets on mountain slopes, damp places at forest margins. Hunan.