古城薹草 gu cheng tai cao

Rhizome short, woody. Culms 50-76 cm tall, smooth. Leaves surpassing culm, blades broadly linear, 6-8 mm wide, flat, leathery, margins scabrous. Involucral bracts shortly bladed, long sheathing. Spikes 4 or 5; terminal spike male, linear-cylindric, 5-7.5 cm, with long peduncle; lateral spikes 3 or 4, androgynous, cylindric, male part linear, longer than or equaling female part, 5-7.5 cm, with long or short peduncles. Female glumes pale brown, ovate-lanceolate, green 3-veined costa ending in a cusp. Utricles slightly longer than or nearly equaling glume, slightly obliquely patent, subhorizontal at maturity, ovate (excluding beak), 6-7 mm (including beak), leathery, glabrous, many veined, base rounded, apex abruptly contracted into a slightly compressed long beak ca. 4 mm, beak sparsely serrulate, 2-toothed at orifice. Nutlets purple-black at maturity, tightly enveloped, ovate, ca. 2.5 mm, trigonous with angles constricted at middle, faces concave at base, base with curved short stipe, apex abruptly contracted into a curved beak; style base inflated conic; stigmas 3.

● Shady forests, on rocks by streamsides along valleys; ca. 900 m. Guangxi.