绿边薹草 lü bian tai cao

Culms 15-20 cm tall, slender, trigonous, smooth, clothed at base with purple-red sheaths slightly disintegrating into fibers. Leaves nearly equaling culm, blades linear, ca. 2 mm wide. Lowest involucral bracts leaflike, sheathless, shorter than inflorescence, upper ones glumelike. Spikes 3 or 4, slightly approximate; terminal spikes gynaecandrous, obovate-lanceolate, 1.3-1.5 cm; lateral spikes female, oblong, 8-12 mm, ca. 3 mm wide, densely many flowered; lowest spike with short peduncle, remaining ones sessile. Female glumes dark brown, ovate, ca. 3 mm, margins white hyaline, green 3-veined costa projecting beyond apex forming a short mucro. Utricles stramineous, subequaling or slightly longer than glume, elliptic, trigonous, 3-3.5 mm, membranous, glabrous, finely veined, base cuneate, margins green, apex abruptly contracted into a conic beak, beak slightly scabrous on margins, orifice brown, 2-toothed. Nutlets loosely enveloped, elliptic, trigonous, ca. 2 mm; stigmas 3. Fl. and fr. Jul.

● Alpine grasslands; ca. 2500 m. Shanxi.