桂龄薹草 gui ling tai cao

Rhizome short. Culms brown, densely tufted, 10-20 cm tall, ca. 1 mm thick, slender, triquetrous, scabrous on angles, persistent sheathed at base. Involucral bracts leaflike, linear, blades ca. 1 mm wide, longer than subtending spike, sheathed. Spike single, rarely 2, androgynous, terminal spike ovoid, 5-8 mm, 4-6 mm wide, sometimes a lateral spike borne at base of culm, usually long pedunculate; male part of spike shorter than female part, densely few flowered; female part 3- or 4-flowered. Female glumes greenish, broadly ovate, 1.8-3 mm, membranous, several veined, apex acute and long awned. Utricle green, obliquely patent, longer than glume, obovate-elliptic, slightly inflated trigonous, ca. 5 mm, densely hispidulous, distinctly 2-veined laterally and thinly several veined, base cuneate, apex abruptly contracted into a short beak, orifice shortly 2-toothed. Nutlets yellowish green at maturity, ovate, trigonous, 2.2-2.8 mm, base contracted into a slightly long stipe, apex not mucronate; style with a thickened, conic base, loosely pubescent; stigmas 3. Reduced rachilla sometimes present and setaceous. Fl. and fr. Jun-Aug.

● Thickets or meadows on high mountains, Pinus forests or evergreen broad-leaved forests; 900-3000 m. S Sichuan (Yanbian), NW Yunnan.