商城薹草 shang cheng tai cao

Rhizome short, woody. Culms lateral, 20-45 cm tall, compressed trigonous, clothed at base with dark brown sheaths eventually disintegrating into fibers. Leaves shorter than culm, blades green, linear, 4-7 mm wide, usually scabrous adaxially and on margins. Involucral bracts leaflike, scabrous, sheathing. Spikes 2; terminal spike male, clavate, ca. 3 mm; lateral spike androgynous, oblong, ca. 2.5 cm, densely flowered. Female glumes yellow-brown, oblong, 4.5-5 mm (excluding awn), green 3-veined scabrous costa excurrent into a long awn. Utricles pale brown, longer than glume, broadly ovate, ca. 6.5 mm, obliquely patent, densely hispid, many veined, apex abruptly contracted into a beak ca. 2.5 mm, orifice 2-toothed. Nutlets castaneous, tightly enveloped, ovate, ca. 3 mm, trigonous with angles constricted at middle, faces concave at base, base shortly stipitate, apex abruptly contracted into a curved beak; style base not thickened; stigmas 3. Fl. and fr. Apr.

● Slopes; ca. 600 m. Henan.