横果薹草 heng guo tai cao

Carex brownii Tuckerman var. transversa (Boott) Kükenthal.

Rhizome short. Culms tufted, 30-60 cm tall, acutely triquetrous, clothed with purple-brown bladeless sheaths at base. Leaves shorter than or slightly longer than culms, blades 3-5 mm wide, flat, rather soft; sheaths rather long. Involucral bracts longer than subtending spike, leaflike, sheathing portion ca. 1/2 length of subtending peduncle. Spikes 3-5, upper 2 or 3 slightly contiguous, lower ones rather remote; terminal spike male, narrowly cylindric, 1-1.5 cm, with peduncle; lateral spikes female, broadly cylindric or suboblong, 2-3 cm, densely many flowered, with rather long peduncle. Female glumes pale and hyaline laterally, ovate, 4-5 mm, membranous, green 1-3-veined, apex acuminate, with a long awn. Utricles brown-green, obliquely patent, longer than or as long as glume (including length of awn), ovate or elliptic-ovate, slightly inflated trigonous, 5-6.5 mm, membranous, glabrous, conspicuously several veined, base broadly cuneate, apex gradually attenuate into a long beak, orifice obliquely truncate or minutely 2-toothed. Nutlets yellowish, subloosely enveloped, broadly obovate, trigonous, ca. 3 mm, base stipitate, apex mucronate; stigmas 3. Fl. and fr. Apr-May.

Forests, grasslands, wet places; 500-800 m. Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Zhejiang [Japan, Korea].