秆叶薹草 gan ye tai cao

Rhizome long stoloniferous. Culms 90-100 cm tall, trigonous, smooth, clothed at base with purple bladeless sheaths. Leaves cauline, shorter than culm, blades linear, 4-5 mm wide, flat, scabrous adaxially, with purple-reddish long sheaths. Involucral bracts leaflike, with purple-reddish long sheaths, 3.5-4.5 mm. Spikes numerous, 3-5 each arising from involucral bract axil, long linear, androgynous or terminal male, 1.5-5 cm. Female glumes pale brown, ovate, 2-2.5 mm, margins hyaline, 3-veined costa excurrent into a scabrous awn, apex emarginate and ciliate. Utricles olive-green, longer than glume, elliptic, trigonous, 3-3.5 mm, membranous, purple puncticulate, hispidulous above or later glabrous, base truncate, apex abruptly contracted into a scabrous long beak, orifice hyaline, emarginate or subentire. Nutlets dark chestnut, tightly enveloped, rhomboid-trigonous, ca. 2 mm; style base slightly thickened; stigmas 3. Fl. and fr. Aug-Oct.

Forests, ditch sides; 1500-1800 m. Xizang, SE Yunnan [Bhutan, India, Nepal, Vietnam].