密穗嵩草 mi sui song cao

Basionym: Kobresia capillifolia (Decaisne) C. B. Clarke var. condensata Kükenthal, Notes Roy. Bot. Gard. Edinburgh 7: 134. 1912.

Rhizomes short. Basal sheaths prominent and persistent, outer ones dark brown, inner ones orange-brown, margins and apices fibrillose, retaining dried leaf blades. Culms densely tufted, erect, stiff, obtusely trigonous, 14-44 cm, slender, 1-1.8 mm in diam. Leaves basal, shorter than culms; blade stiffly erect, filiform, V-shaped in cross section, 0.5-1 mm wide. Inflorescence a dense panicle, brown, oblong-lanceolate, to 2-4 × 0.6-1 cm; branches short, obliquely appressed; lowest involucral bract glumelike, apex shortly aristate. Lateral branches androgynous with 1 or 2 basal female spikelets and up to 10 male flowers, or unisexual with up to 6 female spikelets. Glumes brown, with conspicuous green midvein, ovate-oblong, 5.5-6 × 2.7-3 mm, papery, midvein broad, margin hyaline, apex acute or mucronate. Prophylls yellowish brown, oblong, 4-4.5 × 1.5-1.8 mm, membranous, strongly 2-keeled, keels minutely scabrid, margins free nearly to base, apex hyaline, truncate. Nutlets cream, oblong, compressed trigonous, 3-3.5 × 1.1-1.7 mm, not or very shortly beaked, very shortly stipitate. Stigmas 3. Fl. and fr. Jun-Jul.

● Streambeds, river terraces and wet meadows with shrubs, open areas in mixed conifer forests; 3200-4000 m. SW Sichuan (Daocheng, Xiangcheng), NW Yunnan (Lijiang).