狐狸薹草 hu li tai cao

Rhizome short, indurate. Culms tufted, 40-70 cm tall, slightly stiff, compressed trigonous, scabrous narrowly winged above, clothed at base with pale brown sheaths disintegrating into fibers. Leaves longer than culm, blades pale green, linear, 5-7 mm wide, flat, margins scabrous, apex acuminate; membranous side of leaf sheaths ferruginous puncticulate. Involucral bracts setaceous. Inflorescence cylindric, 3-4.5 × 1.5-2 cm; spikes numerous, androgynous, ovate, 7-10 mm. Female glumes pale green, ovate, 2.5-3.5 mm, ferruginous puncticulate, green 1-veined costa excurrent into a slightly scabrous awn. Utricles ferruginous-brown, longer than glume, ovate-lanceolate, plano-convex, 3.5-4 mm, leathery, distinctly veined abaxially, nerveless or veined only at base adaxially, base subrounded, spongy, shortly stipitate, upper margins narrowly winged, spinulose-serrate, apex gradually attenuate into a long beak, beak deeply cleft abaxially, cuneate-cleft adaxially, 2-toothed at orifice. Nutlets brown, oblong, biconvex, ca. 2 mm, lustrous; style base thickened; stigmas 2. Fl. and fr. Aug. 2n = 68.

Wet grassy riverbanks; ca. 1200 m. Xinjiang [Russia (Siberia); C Asia, SW Asia (Caucasus), Europe].