58. Carex atrata Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 2: 976. 1753.
黑穗薹草 hei sui tai cao
Rhizome usually short. Culms densely tufted, 15-65 cm tall, trigonous, scabrous above, slightly inclined at apex, clothed at base with purple-red bladeless sheaths disintegrating into slightly reticulate fibers. Leaves shorter than culm, blades linear, 3-5 mm wide. Lower 1 or 2 involucral bracts leaflike, sheathless, upper ones setaceous or glumelike. Spikes 3-5, contiguous; terminal spike gynaecandrous, obovate or oblong; lateral spikes female, oblong, 10-15 × 5-6 mm, lower 2 with long peduncles, pendulous. Female glumes brown, dark brown, or purple-brown, ovate to narrowly ovate, 1-veined pale brownish costa forming a mucro at apex, apex acute to acuminate. Utricles brownish especially on upper part, nearly equaling or slightly shorter or longer than glume, elliptic or ovate, plano-convex, 3-3.5 mm, minutely papillose, without conspicuous veins except for 2 costas on edges, apex abruptly contracted into a conic short beak, orifice shallowly 2-toothed. Nutlets loosely enveloped, obovate, trigonous, 1.5-1.7 mm; style base not thickened; stigmas 3.
Alpine frozen soil, thickets, alpine meadows. Jilin, Qinghai, Sichuan, Taiwan, Xinjiang, SE Xizang, NW Yunnan [Bhutan, India, Japan, Korea, Mongolia, Nepal, Russia; C Asia, Europe].
