硕果薹草 shuo guo tai cao

Carex japonica Thunberg var. phaenocarpa (Franchet) Kükenthal.

Rhizome short, long stoloniferous. Culms 35-50 cm tall, ca. 1.5 mm thick, compressed trigonous. Leaves shorter than culm, upper blades rather long, lower blades short, 5-8 mm wide, flat, sheathed, lower sheaths purple-brown. Involucral bracts leaflike, longer than spike, very shortly sheathed or sheathless. Spikes 3 or 4, slightly approximate; terminal spike male, narrowly cylindric, ca. 3 cm × 4 mm, pedunculate; lateral spikes 2 or 3, female, cylindric, 2-3.5 cm × ca. 8 mm, densely many flowered, subsessile or lowermost with very short peduncle. Male glumes yellow-brown, ovate-lanceolate, green veined, apex acute; female glumes yellow-brown, ovate-lanceolate, ca. 2.5 mm, green carinate-costate, apex acute and aristulate. Utricles olivaceous, horizontally patent at maturity, ovate, slightly inflated trigonous, 4-4.5 mm, shiny, papery, 5-veined, base broadly cuneate, apex gradually attenuate into a medium-sized to long beak, orifice shortly 2-toothed. Nutlets loosely enveloped, obovate, trigonous, ca. 2 mm; stigmas 3, rather short. Fl. and fr. Apr-Jun.

● Forests, forest margins. Yunnan.