舌叶薹草 she ye tai cao

Carex hebecarpa C. A. Meyer var. ligulata (Nees) Kükenthal.

Rhizome stout and short, ligneous, without stolons, with rather many rootlets. Culms laxly tufted, 35-70 cm tall, triquetrous, rather stout, scabrous on upper angles, clothed with red-brown and bladeless sheaths. Upper leaves longer than culm, lower leaves shorter than culm, blades 6-12 mm wide, sometimes up to 15 mm wide, flat, sometimes involute on margins, slightly soft, with distinctly transverse septate nodes between veins on abaxial surface; sheaths ferruginous, ligulate, up to 6 cm. Involucral bracts leaflike, longer than inflorescence, lower involucral bracts slightly long sheathed, upper involucral bracts shortly sheathed or not sheathed. Spikes 6-8, remote in lower part, approximate in upper part; terminal spike male, linear-cylindric, 1-2 cm, shortly pedunculate or subsessile; lateral spikes female, cylindric or oblong-cylindric, 2.5-4 cm, 5-6 mm thick, densely many flowered, pedunculate, upper peduncles rather short. Female glumes brownish yellow, shortly ferruginous striate, ovate or broadly ovate, ca. 3 mm, membranous, glabrous, green 1-costate, apex acute, usually mucronate. Utricles green-brown, shortly ferruginous striate, suberect, longer than glume, obovate, obtusely trigonous, 4-5 mm, densely white hispidulous, 2-veined laterally, base cuneate, apex abruptly narrowed to a slightly short beak, orifice shortly 2-toothed. Nutlets brown, tightly enveloped, elliptic, trigonous, 2.5-3 mm, smooth; style short, base slightly thickened; stigmas 3. Fl. and fr. May-Jul.

Forests on mountain slopes, grasslands, ditch sides in valleys, damp places at riversides; 600-2000 m. Fujian, Guizhou, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Yunnan, Zhejiang [NE and S India, Japan, Nepal, Sri Lanka].

Carex ligulata var. glabriutriculata Q. S. Wang (J. Wuhan Bot. Res. 5: 344. 1987) differs from C. ligulata and C. pseudoligulata in having utricles glabrous. Because the original description of C. ligulata var. glabriutriculata is very simple and we have not seen the type specimen, we cannot compare them in detail and take time to make any determination.