启无薹草 qi wu tai cao

Rhizome short. Culms densely tufted, 18-30 cm tall, ca. 1.5 mm thick, slender, obtusely trigonous, stiff. Leaves shorter than culm, flat, blades 3-5 mm wide, slightly stiff, dark brown and persistent sheathed at base. Involucral bracts spathelike, sheaths greenish, involucral bract mouth white and membranous, with linear bract leaf at apex. Spikes 3 or 4; terminal spike male, oblong, 1.2-1.3 cm, ca. 3 mm thick, densely many flowered, peduncle 4.5-7 cm, taller or not taller than adjacent female spike; lateral spikes 2 or 3, female, remote, cylindric, 2-3 cm, ca. 4 mm thick, densely many flowered, peduncles slender, very long exserted from involucral bract sheath. Female glumes dark brown laterally, green at middle, oblong or obovate-oblong, 3.8-4.2 mm, 1-3-veined, scabrous abaxially and on veins, broadly white hyaline on upper margin, apex rounded or emarginate, mucronate. Utricles yellowish green, slightly longer than glume, obovate-oblong, obtusely trigonous, 4-4.2 mm, papery, densely hispidulous, 2-veined laterally, not thinly veined, base gradually narrowed to a long stipe, apex abruptly contracted into a short beak, orifice obliquely truncate, membranous. Nutlets obovate-oblong, 2.1-2.5 mm, base nearly estipitate, apex rounded; style thickened into conic shape at base, erect or recurved; stigmas 3. Fl. and fr. Jun-Jul.

● Rhododendron thickets, Pinus and Larix forests; 2800-4500 m. NW Yunnan (Lijiang, Zhongdian).