普陀薹草 pu tuo tai cao

Rhizome woody. Culms ca. 25 cm tall, trigonous, clothed at base with dark brown bladeless sheaths. Leaves shorter than glume, blades brown-green, linear, 2-4 mm wide, revolute, leathery. Involucral bracts shortly bladed, sheathing. Spikes 2; terminal spike male, clavate, ca. 4.5 cm, peduncles ca. 7.5 cm; lateral spike female, cylindric, ca. 3.5 cm, densely flowered, shortly pedunculate. Female glumes brown, oblong, ca. 3.5 mm, upper margins white hyaline, 3-veined costa excurrent into a scabrous long awn at slightly emarginate apex. Utricles brown, longer than glume, obovate, trigonous, ca. 5 mm, papery, many veined, base cuneate, apex gradually narrowed into a sparsely serrulate beak, orifice deeply 2-lobed with long teeth. Nutlets dark brown, tightly enveloped, obovate, ca. 2 mm, trigonous with angles constricted at middle, faces concave at base, apex abruptly contracted into a curved beak; stigmas 3.

● E Zhejiang (Putuo).