舒城薹草 shu cheng tai cao

Rhizome ligneous, obliquely ascending. Culms 30-45 cm tall, 2-2.5 mm thick, obtusely trigonous, smooth. Leaves longer than culm, flat, blades 6-10 mm wide, stiff, rigid, margins scabrous; basal sheaths dark brown, persistent, usually disintegrating into fibers. Involucral bracts red-brown, spathelike, margins white hyaline, apex acute, without distinct involucral bract leaf. Spikes 5 or 6, remote; terminal spike male, clavate, 7-8 cm, 5-7 mm thick, densely many flowered, peduncle rather long, taller than adjacent female spike; lateral spikes 4 or 5, female, cylindric, 3.5-5 cm, ca. 5 mm thick, densely many flowered, laxly several flowered at base, peduncles usually not exserted or slightly exserted from involucral bract sheath at lower part. Female glumes red-brown laterally, green at middle, narrowly oblong, 4-4.5 mm, papery, 3-veined, margins broadly white hyaline, apex acute. Utricles yellowish green, shorter than glume, elliptic, obtusely trigonous, ca. 3 mm, laxly pubescent, 2-veined laterally and thinly several veined, base attenuate into a short stipe, apex abruptly contracted into a short beak, orifice obliquely truncate. Nutlets obovate-oblong, trigonous, ca. 2 mm, base gradually narrowed, shortly stipitate, apex rounded and tortuously beaked; style base slightly thickened; stigmas 3.

● Shady places at forest margins on mountain slopes. Anhui (Shucheng).