小薹草 xiao tai cao

Carex unifoliata Kükenthal & Handel-Mazzetti; Kobresia lolonum Handel-Mazzetti.

Rhizome rather stout, usually elongate. Culms loosely tufted, 10-35 cm tall, rather soft, often flattened, smooth, with brown bladeless basal sheaths, old sheath not splitting into fibers. Basal leaf 1, cauline leaves shorter than culm, blades flat or involute, 1-1.2 mm wide, smooth. Inflorescence 1-spiked, terminal, androgynous (very rarely completely male); male part many flowered, longer than female part; female part 2-4(-6)-flowered. Female glumes dark brown to brown, caducous, oblong-lanceolate, 5-6.5 mm, 3-veined costa of 2 lowest glumes excurrent into a mucro or a short awn up to 7 mm in length, apex acute to slightly obtuse. Utricles suberect first, reflexed at maturity, lanceolate-rhombic, nearly half globose in transverse section, 6-8 mm (including ca. 1.5 mm spongy base), papery, many veined, apex gradually attenuate into a rather long beak, orifice adaxially obliquely truncate. Nutlet shortly cylindric, trigonous, 3.5-4.5 mm, with stipe ca. 1.5 mm and embraced in spongy base of utricle; rachilla soft, flat, slightly longer than nutlet, not exserted; stigmas 3. Fr. May-Aug.

Forest margins, mountain slopes, bogs, wet places along riverbanks; 2300-4400 m. Gansu, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Xizang, Yunnan [Bhutan, India (Sikkim), Nepal; C Asia].