北薹草 bei tai cao

Rhizome elongate, creeping. Culms loosely tufted, with purple-red sheaths at base, 10-20 cm tall, trigonous, often scabrid above. Leaves shorter than culm, blades flat or involute, 1-1.5 mm wide. Inflorescence 1-spiked, terminal, androgynous; male part linear-cylindric, 5-8 mm; female part 3-8-flowered, subspherical at maturity. Female glumes pale brown, broadly ovate, ca. 3 mm, 3-veined, margins broadly membranous, apex acute. Utricles chestnut-colored to dark brown, broadly ovate, convex abaxially, with 2 shallow grooves at slightly flat adaxial side, ca. 3 mm, leathery, faintly veined, apex abruptly contracted into a short beak, orifice membranous, obliquely truncate. Nutlet loosely enveloped, elliptic, trigonous, ca. 2 mm, with a linear rachilla or rarely a not fully developed utricle at base; rachilla as long as nutlet; stigmas 3. Fr. Aug.

Forests, forest margins; ca. 2500 m (in Xinjiang). Heilongjiang, Jilin, Xinjiang [Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Russia; SW Asia (Caucasus), C and N Europe, North America].