陌上菅 mo shang jian

Carex gaudichaudiana Kunth var. thunbergii (Steudel) Kükenthal.

Rhizome with long stolons. Culms 40-100 cm tall, trigonous, smooth, slightly scabrous above, clothed at base with light brown sheaths slightly disintegrating into parallel or reticulate fibers. Leaves shorter or slightly longer than culm, subflat, blades linear, ca. 3 mm wide, margins slightly scabrous. Involucral bracts leaflike, longer than or equaling inflorescence, sheathless. Spikes 3-5, distant; upper 1 or 2 spikes male, linear, ca. 3.5 cm; remaining spikes female, cylindric, 25-40 × 3-4 mm, densely many flowered, lower ones shortly pedunculate. Female glumes ferruginous or light brown, oblong, 2.5-2.8 mm, green 3-veined at middle, margins white hyaline, apex obtuse. Utricles green-yellow, longer than glume, elliptic or long elliptic, plano-convex, membranous, densely minutely papillose, 4- or 5-veined, base shortly stipitate, apex abruptly contracted into a very short beak, orifice emarginate or entire. Nutlets loosely enveloped, obovate, plano-convex, apex rounded; style base not thickened; stigmas 2.

Lakesides, wet grasslands. Heilongjiang, Liaoning [Japan].