枯灯心草 ku deng xin cao

Plants perennial, 17--55 cm tall. Rhizome 1.5--3 mm in diam. Stems terete, 2--3.5 mm in diam. Cataphylls few. Basal leaves 5 or 6; leaf sheath auricles obtuse, membranous, free part ca. 3 mm; leaf blade linear-lanceolate, semiterete, 4--14 cm × 3--5 mm, apex obtuse. Inflorescences terminal, usually 2- or 3-branched; involucral bract linear-lanceolate, 5--15 cm, equaling inflorescence; heads 2--5(--8), subglobose to hemispheric, 1.2--2 cm in diam. in fruit, 5--7-flowered. Pedicels 2--3(--5) mm. Perianth segments chestnut brown to blackish brown, lanceolate, veins 1--3, apex acute; outer segments 6.5--11 mm; inner segments 6.3--9.7 mm. Stamens 6; filaments chestnut brown at base, 2--4 mm, apex whitish hyaline; anthers 2--2.5 mm. Style 1.5--2 mm; stigmas 2--3 mm. Capsule chestnut brown, shiny, trigonous oblong, 6--8 mm, 3-septate, apex obtuse, beaked; beak ca. 1 mm. Seeds ellipsoid, 0.7--0.9 mm, both ends appendaged; appendages white, 1.2--1.5 mm. Fl. Jul--Aug, fr. Aug--Sep.

Wet places at ravine margins and riversides, moist streamsides, grasslands on mountain slopes; 3300--4800 m. Qinghai, Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan [Afghanistan, Bhutan, India, Kashmir, Nepal, Sikkim].