高鞘薹草 gao qiao tai cao

Rhizome with stout stolons. Culms 30-60 cm tall, slightly scabrous or smooth above, clothed at base with yellowish brown bladeless long sheaths disintegrating into reticulate fibers. Leaves shorter than culm, blades linear, 2-4 mm wide, slightly rigid. Involucral bracts leaflike, ± equaling inflorescence, sheathless. Spikes 3-5; upper 1 or 2(or 3) spikes male, oblong, up to ca. 2.5 cm; remaining spikes androgynous, distant, ovate or oblong-ovate, 1-2.5 cm, densely many flowered. Female glumes ferruginous, brown, or dark brown, light at middle, oblong-ovate, margins narrowly pale hyaline, apex slightly obtuse. Utricles grayish green, becoming light ferruginous, longer than glume, ovate or rhomboid-ovate, plano-convex, 4-5 mm, 3-5-veined, base estipitate, apex gradually attenuate into a smooth or slightly scabrous short beak, orifice truncate. Nutlets broadly obovate; style stout; stigmas 2.

Moss marshes. Heilongjiang [Japan, Russia (Far East)].