胶东薹草 jiao dong tai cao

Rhizome creeping, elongate, 50-100 cm, dark brown, clothed with sheaths disintegrating into fibers. Culms 15-20 cm tall, trigonous, scabrous above, clothed with brown bladeless sheaths at base. Leaves shorter than culm, blades linear, 2-3 mm wide, margins scabrous, apex acuminate. Involucral bracts glumelike. Spicate inflorescence oblong or cylindric, ca. 2 cm; spikes 6-10, androgynous, sometimes female spikes at base and male spikes at middle, ovate, ca. 5 mm. Female glumes chestnut-brown, oblong, ca. 4 mm, margins pale hyaline, apex acuminate. Utricles pale green, ferruginous above, equaling or slightly shorter than glume, plano-convex, 3.5-4 mm, many veined on both faces, base contracted, upper margins serrulate winged, apex gradually narrowed into a ferruginous, obliquely truncate, long beak 2-toothed abaxially. Nutlets oblong, ca. 1.8 mm; style base slightly thickened; stigmas 2. Fl. and fr. May.

● Sandy coastal beaches. E Shandong (Muping).