64. Carex caucasica Steven, Mém. Soc. Imp. Naturalistes Moscou. 4: 68. 1813.
高加索薹草 gao jia suo tai cao
Rhizome short. Culms densely or subloosely tufted, 25-70 cm tall, trigonous, scabrous above, clothed at base with dark purple, lustrous bladeless sheaths disintegrating into fibers. Leaves as long as or shorter than culm, blades 3-8 mm wide. Lowest involucral bracts leaflike, slightly longer than inflorescence, remaining bracts setaceous, sheathless. Spikes 4-7; terminal spikes gynaecandrous, obovate or oblong, 15-25 × 5-6 mm; remaining spikes female, ovate or oblong to clavate, 1.5-3 × 0.6-0.8 cm, densely many flowered, with peduncle 4-5 cm, lowest 1 or 2 pendent on elongate peduncle. Female glumes dark purple-brown to purple-black, lanceolate, oblong-ovate, or lanceolate-elliptic, 3.2-3.8 mm, membranous, margins white hyaline, 3-veined yellowish costa forming a mucro at apex, apex acute to cuspidate. Utricles yellowish greenish, upper part ± stained with purple or ferruginous-yellow at length, obovate, obovate-elliptic, or compressed trigonous, 3-4 mm, faintly 3-5-veined at base or 7-9-veined abaxially, apex abruptly contracted into an erect short beak, orifice subtruncate or 2-toothed-emarginate. Nutlets loosely contained, obovate or elliptic, trigonous, 1.9-2.5 mm; stigmas 3. Fl. and fr. Jun-Jul.
Alpine meadows and grasslands. Taiwan, Xinjiang [C Asia, SW Asia (Caucasus), Europe].
No specimens have been seen by the present authors.
