岳西薹草 yue xi tai cao

Rhizome short. Culms densely tufted, 20-35 cm tall, triquetrous, slightly scabrous. Leaves nearly equaling culm, linear, blades 0.5-1.5 mm wide, soft, smooth, yellow-brown and persistent sheathed at base. Involucral bracts spathelike, yellowish abaxially, white and hyaline adaxially, with setaceous involucral bract blade. Spikes 3 or 4, lowermost one remote, others approximate; terminal spike male, oblong, ca. 1 cm, not exceeding or slightly exceeding adjacent female spike; lateral spikes 2 or 3, female, uppermost one approximate to male spike, oblong, 1-1.5 cm, 3.5-4 mm thick, loosely several flowered; peduncles slightly scabrous, only lowermost one exserted from sheath, others enclosed in sheath. Female glumes yellowish brown laterally, green at middle, oblong, ca. 5 mm, 1-veined, margins white membranous, apex rounded, mucronate. Utricles yellowish green, shorter than glume, obovate-oblong, ca. 3.2 mm, papery, densely pubescent, 2-veined laterally and thinly several veined, base attenuate into a short stipe, apex contracted into a short beak, orifice obliquely truncate. Nutlets obovate-oblong, ca. 2.5 mm, base attenuate, nearly estipitate, apex abruptly contracted into a long beak exserted from utricle; style base slightly thickened; stigmas 3. Fl. and fr. Apr-May.

● Mountain slopes, roadsides. SW Anhui (Taihu, Yuexi).