瓦屋薹草 wa wu tai cao

Rhizome short. Culms up to ca. 50 cm tall, ca. 2 mm thick, acutely trigonous, smooth, clothed with purple-red sheaths at base. Leaves shorter than culm, blades linear, 5-6 mm wide, flat, margins scabrous. Upper involucral bracts setaceous, lower leaflike, sheathless. Spikes 8; upper 3 spikes male, occasionally with a few female flowers at base, linear, 20-60 × 1.5-2 mm, sessile or with very short peduncles; remaining spikes female, linear-cylindric, 70-85 × ca. 3 mm, slightly densely flowered, lowest spike sometimes branched, with peduncle ca. 1 cm. Female glumes yellowish brown, broadly ovate, 1.8-2 mm, green 3-veined costa excurrent into a mucro. Utricles brown, ferruginous flecked, longer than glume, ovate, 2.2-2.5 mm, veined, apex abruptly contracted into a short beak, orifice entire. Nutlets stramineous, tightly enveloped, broadly ovoid, plano-convex, ca. 1.5 mm, base shortly stipitate, apex abruptly contracted into a short beak; style base not thickened; stigmas 2. Fl. and fr. Jun-Jul.

● C Sichuan (Hongya: Wawu Shan).