459. Carex longipes D. Don ex Tilloch & Taylor, Philos. Mag. J. 62: 455. 1823.
长穗柄薹草 chang sui bing tai cao
Rhizome slightly elongate, ligneous, clothed with dark brown sheaths eventually disintegrating into fibers. Culms tufted or loosely tufted, 10-70 cm tall, rather thin, triquetrous, smooth on lower part, scabrous on upper part. Leaves basal, much shorter than culm, blades 2-4 mm wide, flat, scabrous on both surfaces and margins; sheaths less than 2 cm, usually splitting. Involucral bracts sheathed, lower involucral bracts leaflike, upper ones setaceous, uppermost 1 or 2 nearly bladeless; sheaths 0.5-4.5 cm. Spikes 3-5, single in an involucral bract sheath, remote, spaced up to 18 cm, upper spikes rather contiguous, usually not branched, androgynous, cylindric, 2-4 cm, with few male flowers on upper part, sparsely with more than 10 female flowers on lower part; lower spikes long pedunculate, upper spikes shortly pedunculate. Female glumes yellowish green, ovate-lanceolate, 3.5-5 mm, membranous, several veined, midrib slightly thick, apex acuminate, aristate, scabrous on awn. Utricles greenish, obliquely patent, longer than glume, elliptic or broadly elliptic, plano-convex, 5-6 mm, membranous, glabrous, 5-9-veined abaxially, base cuneate, apex gradually narrowed into a slightly long beak, beak ca. 2.5 mm, scabrid on margins, 2-toothed at orifice. Nutlets stramineous, tightly enveloped, broadly elliptic, compressed plano-convex, ca. 2.5 mm, base shortly stipitate; style base slightly thickened; stigmas 2. Fl. and fr. Jun-Aug.
Grasslands or dry places on mountain slopes, riversides; 1200-2600 m. Hubei, Sichuan, Yunnan [Bhutan, India, Indonesia, Kashmir, Nepal].
