细花薹草 xi hua tai cao

Rhizome short, with short stolons. Culms loosely tufted, 20-50 cm tall, slender, trigonous, slightly stiff, smooth or subsmooth. Leaves shorter than culm, blades linear, 1-1.5 mm wide, flat or involute, slightly scabrous. Involucral bracts glumelike. Spikes 2-4, gynaecandrous, globose, 3-4 mm, few flowered, disposed in a capitate or spicate inflorescence. Female glumes pale yellow, ovate, 2-2.5 mm, with pale brown midrib, margins hyaline. Utricles yellowish green, subequaling glume, ovate or elliptic, plano-convex, 2-2.5 × ca. 1.1 mm, subleathery, minutely white tuberculate, brown-purple 5-9-veined on both faces, base rounded, nearly estipitate, apex beakless, orifice emarginate. Nutlets tightly enveloped, elliptic or broadly elliptic, biconvex, ca. 1.2 mm, base rounded to cuneate; style base not thickened; stigmas 2. Fl. and fr. Jul. 2n = 58.

Swamps; ca. 900 m. Jilin, Nei Mongol [Japan, Korea, N Mongolia, Russia (Far East, Siberia); Europe, North America].