秦岭薹草 qin ling tai cao

Rhizome very short. Culms 19-22 cm tall, obtusely trigonous, slightly thick, smooth, clothed at base with brown sheaths disintegrating into fibers. Leaves longer than culm, blades linear, 3-5 mm wide, slightly curved or plicate, apex acuminate. Involucral bracts shortly bladed, shorter than subtending spike, long sheathing. Spikes 4 or 5, approximate, lowest one often distant; terminal spike male, brown, narrowly cylindric, 2.5-3 cm; lateral spikes female, erect, cylindric, 2.5-5 cm, densely many flowered, sessile or with short peduncles. Female glumes pale green, oblong-lanceolate, green 3-veined costa excurrent into a mucro. Utricles green-brown, longer and broader than glume, obliquely patent, lanceolate-ovate, subtrigonous, 4.5-5 mm, membranous, sparsely hispid, many veined, base cuneate, apex gradually tapering into a conic long beak, orifice 2-toothed. Nutlets tightly enveloped, elliptic, trigonous, faces concave at base, apex abruptly contracted into a short beak, beak annulate at orifice; style base thickened; stigmas 3. Fr. Apr.

● On rocks along valleys and slopes. Gansu, Shaanxi.