蔬果薹草 shu guo tai cao

Rhizome stoloniferous. Culms 30-50 cm tall, triquetrous, slender, scabrous on upper part, clothed with reddish brown and bladeless sheaths. Upper leaves longer than culm, blades 2-5 mm wide, flat, scabrous on veins of adaxial surface, rather long sheathed; sheaths often overlapping, laxly pubescent on surface. Involucral bracts leafy, longer than inflorescence, rather long sheathed, pubescent on outside. Spikes 5 or 6, upper spikes approximate, lower spikes rather remote; terminal spike male, linear, ca. 2 cm, shortly pedunculate; lateral spikes female, narrowly cylindric, 1.5-4 cm, laxly many flowered, lower spikes long pedunculate, upper spikes rather shortly pedunculate; peduncles scabrous. Female glumes pale, shortly ferruginous striate, broadly ovate, 1.8-2 mm, membranous, 3-veined, apex acute, mucronate. Utricles red-brown, obliquely patent, subdistichous, easily deciduous in maturity, longer than glume, obovate-elliptic, obtusely trigonous, ca. 3 mm, submembranous, densely white hispidulous, distinctly 2-veined laterally, base cuneate, apex abruptly contracted into a medium-sized beak, orifice shortly 2-toothed. Nutlets tightly enveloped in utricle, elliptic, trigonous, ca. 2 mm; style short, early deciduous; stigmas 3. Fl. and fr. May-Oct.

Damp places in valleys of mountain regions, in forests, or at roadsides. Fujian, Guangdong, Hunan, Taiwan [Bhutan, India, Nepal].