细秆薹草 xi gan tai cao

Rhizome short, without stolons. Culms densely tufted, 15-40 cm tall, rather slender, obtusely trigonous, smooth, with brown sheaths at base, old sheaths usually disintegrated into fibers. Leaves much shorter than culm, 1/3-1/2 height of culm, blades 1.5-2 mm wide, flat, rather soft, scabrous on margins, shortly sheathed. Involucral bracts leaflike, linear, shorter than subtending spike, with rather long sheath. Spikes 3 or 4, rather remote, slightly pendulous; terminal spike male, sometimes with 2 or 3 female flowers at base or apex, narrowly lanceolate, 0.5-1 cm, not surpassing uppermost female spike; lateral spikes female, narrowly oblong, 0.8-1.5 cm, loosely 6-10-flowered; peduncles slender, longest up to 5 cm, smooth or slightly scabrous. Female glumes early deciduous, yellow-brown or brown, obovate, ca. 2.5 mm, membranous, green 3-veined, with veins and midrib convex, margins broadly white hyaline, apex obtuse or acute and mucronate. Utricles dark yellow-green or brown-green, suberect, longer than glume, ovate-oblong or narrowly ovate, obtusely trigonous, 3.5-4 mm, membranous, nerveless, base gradually attenuate into a short stipe, apex gradually narrowed into a ± long beak, beak slightly scabrous on margins, white hyaline and obliquely truncate or emarginate at orifice. Nutlets yellowish, tightly enveloped, obovate, trigonous, ca. 1.5 mm; style base slightly thickened; stigmas 3. Fl. and fr. Jun-Jul.

Alpine grasslands and meadows, mountain slopes, streamsides, watersides. Gansu, Jilin, Liaoning, Nei Mongol, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Shanxi [Japan, Korea, Russia; Europe, North America].