碧江薹草 bi jiang tai cao

Rhizome short. Culms tufted, 50-60 cm tall, 2.5-3.5 mm wide, trigonous, clothed at base with dark purple sheaths sometimes disintegrating into fibers. Leaves shorter than culm, blades linear, 4-7 mm wide, flat. Lowest 1 or 2 involucral bracts leaflike, overtopping inflorescence, sheathless, upper ones setaceous, shorter than inflorescence, sheathless. Spikes 4-6, approximate, lowest 1 or 2 distant; terminal spike gynaecandrous, cylindric, 2-3 × 0.8-0.9 cm; lowest peduncle 8-12 mm, upper spikes with short peduncle or sessile. Female glumes dark brown, ovate-lanceolate, 6-6.5 (awn 1-1.5 mm) × ca. 2 mm, membranous, 1-veined, costa forming a scabrous long awn at apex. Utricles yellowish green to dark purple, shorter than glume, narrowly elliptic, 4-5 mm, membranous, subleathery, nerveless, apex gradually narrowed into a short beak, orifice truncate or emarginate. Nutlets enveloped, narrowly obovate, trigonous, ca. 2.5 mm; stigmas 3. Fl. and fr. Jul-Sep.

● Alpine meadows; ca. 4000 m. SE Xizang (Zayü), NW Yunnan (Bijiang, Dêqên, Zhongdian).