丽江薹草 li jiang tai cao

Rhizome short, woody. Culms densely tufted, 25-60 cm tall, trigonous, smooth. Leaves basal, almost equaling or longer than culm, blades linear, ca. 2 mm wide, flat, scabrous above, rigid, with brown-green sheaths, lowest sheath bladeless. Lowest involucral bract leaflike, longer than inflorescence. Spikes 4-7, androgynous, linear-cylindric, 3-4 cm, upper ones usually binate, lower ones single, rarely branched at base, with long peduncles. Female glumes reddish, ovate-oblong, 1-veined costa excurrent into a mucro. Utricles yellowish green, longer than glume, elliptic, obtusely trigonous, 3-4 mm, glabrous, many veined, base contracted, apex gradually narrowed into a beak of medium length, orifice truncate, hyaline. Nutlets loosely enveloped, trigonous, ca. 1.5 mm; style base thickened; stigmas 3. Fl. and fr. May-Jul.

● Grassy slopes, moist places along streams, forest margins; 1900-3800 m. SW Sichuan, NW Yunnan.

The following variety could not be treated here because no material was seen by the present authors: Carex dielsiana var. pallidior Handel-Mazzetti (Symb. Sin. 7: 1267. 1936), described from Sichuan.