弥勒山薹草 mi le shan tai cao

Rhizome short, woody. Culms up to 33 cm tall, trigonous, pubescent, clothed at base with dark brown sheaths disintegrating into fibers. Leaves surpassing culm, blades broadly linear, 6-10 mm wide, flat, pubescent on both faces, base plicate, apex acuminate. Involucral bracts shortly bladed, pubescent, long sheathing. Spikes 4, approximate; terminal spike male, narrowly cylindric, ca. 3.5 cm, with long pubescent peduncles; lateral spikes 3, androgynous, bearing a short male part at apex, cylindric, 3.5-4.2 cm, subdensely flowered, with pubescent peduncles. Female glumes yellow-white, lanceolate, ca. 5 mm, pubescent, green 3-veined costa excurrent into a mucro. Utricles yellow-brown, slightly longer than glume, obliquely patent, ovate-elliptic, ca. 8 mm, papery, densely pubescent, many veined, base cuneate, apex abruptly contracted into a long beak ca. 3 mm, orifice 2-toothed. Nutlets black, tightly enveloped, rhomboid-obovate, ca. 4 mm, trigonous with angles constricted at middle, faces concave at base, base with short curved stipe, apex abruptly contracted into a long erect beak ca. 1.5 mm, beak expanding into an annulate orifice; style base thickened; stigmas 3. Fl. and fr. Apr-May.

● Rock crevices. Hong Kong.