高氏薹草 gao shi tai cao

Rhizome short, woody. Culms lateral, 7-13 cm tall, compressed trigonous, curved, smooth, clothed at base with 3 or 4 bladeless sheaths. Leaves 3-4 × as long as culm, blades broadly linear, 1-1.5 cm wide, flat, base plicate, margins scabrous, apex acuminate. Involucral bracts shortly bladed, sheathing. Spikes 3 or 4, approximate, pedunculate; terminal spike male, clavate, 5-7 mm; lateral spikes female, ovate, ca. 10 × 7 mm, loosely 5-7-flowered. Female glumes yellow-white, broadly ovate-lanceolate, green 3-veined costa excurrent into an awn. Utricles yellow-green, longer than glume, obliquely patent, rhomboid, 7-8 mm, papery, glabrous, many veined, contracted at both ends, apical beak ca. 2.5 mm, orifice deeply 2-lobed with sharp teeth. Nutlets black, tightly enveloped, rhomboid-elliptic, ca. 5 mm, trigonous with angles constricted at middle, faces concave at base, apex abruptly contracted into a long beak ca. 1 mm, orifice slightly enlarged; style base thickened; stigmas, 3. Fr. May.

● Forest margins. N Guangdong (Ruyuan).