青海薹草 qing hai tai cao

Rhizome long creeping. Culms 30-40 cm tall, trigonous, slightly scabrous, clothed at base with dark chestnut-colored sheaths. Leaves ca. 1/2 length of culm, blades linear, 2-4 mm wide, flat, slightly stiff, margins scabrous. Involucral bracts reduced to shortly bladed, shorter than inflorescence, sheathing. Spikes 3 or 4, oblong; upper 1 or 2 spikes male, 1-1.5 cm, with short peduncles or subsessile; lower 2 spikes female, with slender long peduncles, pendent. Female glumes dark purple, elliptic, 3-3.5 mm, apex obtuse. Utricles dark purple-red, longer than glume, elliptic, compressed, ca. 4 mm, membranous, glabrous, base contracted, apex abruptly contracted into a short beak. Nutlets loosely enveloped, oblong, ca. 1 mm wide, base with a stipe ca. 0.5 mm; style base not thickened; stigmas 3. Fl. and fr. Jul.

● Thickets; 3000-3400 m. E Qinghai (Tongren).