昆仑薹草 kun lun tai cao

Rhizome horizontal. Culms (3-)7-16 cm tall, slender, erect, smooth, clothed at base with brown sheaths. Leaves equaling or slightly longer or shorter than culm, blades linear, plicate, filiform, ca. 1 mm wide, glabrous. Lower involucral bracts leaflike, shorter than inflorescence, sheathing, brown. Spikes (2 or)3(or 4), slightly distant; terminal spike male, 1-1.5 × ca. 0.3 cm; remaining spikes female, oblong, 0.8-1.5 × ca. 0.3 cm, sessile. Female glumes dark purple-brown, ovate, 4-5 mm, 1-veined, margins hyaline. Utricles purple above, green below, lanceolate, trigonous, 3.5-4 mm, nerveless, margins slightly scabrous, apex long beaked, orifice 2-toothed; stigmas 3. Fl. and fr. Jun-Aug.

● Alpine meadows; 4000-4300 m. SE Xinjiang (Ruoqiang).

This name was originally published by N. R. Cui (Fl. Xinjiang. 6: 435, 604. 1996, "kunlunsannsis"), where the type was indicated as having been collected in Ruoqiang Xian and deposited in three herbaria in Xinjiang (XJA, XJBI, XJNU). However, because no collector’s name, number, or date was cited, the requirements of Vienna Code Art. 37 were not satisfied and consequently the name was not validly published there. The name was validated by S. Y. Jin and Y. L. Chen by full and direct reference to N. R. Cui’s validating Latin description and indication of the holotype at XJNU.