唐古拉薹草 tang gu la tai cao

Rhizome slender. Culms loosely tufted, 2-4 cm tall, compressed triquetrous, smooth, few dark brown and bladeless sheathed at base. Leaves slightly shorter than culm, blades 2-3 mm wide, flat, ± stiff, scabrid on veins and upper margins. Involucral bracts setaceous or mucro-shaped, membranous sheathed, usually clothed by leaf sheath. Spikes 3 or 4; terminal spike male, lanceolate or lanceolate-ovate, 6-12 mm, densely 10- or more flowered; lateral spikes female, congregate at base of culm, hidden in leaf tuft, ovate or ovoid, 4-7 mm, densely 5-10-flowered, with short peduncle. Female glumes yellow-brown laterally, yellow-green at middle, ovate, 2.5-3 mm, membranous, 1-costate, margins hyaline, apex acute, mucronate. Utricles yellow-brown, slightly obliquely patent, equaling or slightly longer than glume, elliptic, obtusely trigonous, 2.5-3 mm, thinly leathery, base broadly cuneate, margins hyaline, apex abruptly contracted into a short beak, orifice emarginate. Nutlets yellowish, elliptic, obtusely trigonous, ca. 1.5 mm; style slightly thick and short; stigmas 3. Fl. and fr. Jun-Aug.

● Wet places; 4000-4800 m. Qinghai (Yushu), Xizang.