云岭薹草 yun ling tai cao

Rhizome short. Culms tufted, 30-40 cm tall, slender, smooth, clothed with deep brown sheaths at base. Leaves subequaling culm, blades linear, 4-5 mm wide, flat. Involucral bracts leaflike, longer than inflorescence, sheathing. Spikes 3-5, distant, oblong, 2-2.5 × 0.6-0.7 cm, loosely flowered; terminal spike androgynous; lateral spikes female (often with male part at apex); peduncles enclosed in involucral bract sheaths. Female glumes pale, oblong-lanceolate, 4.5-5 mm, green 3-veined costa excurrent into a long awn. Utricles brownish olivaceous, rhomboid-oblong, inflated trigonous, 8-9 mm, veined, glabrous, base shortly stipitate, apex abruptly contracted into a scabrous long beak, orifice 2-toothed. Nutlets pale, obovate or oblong, ca. 3.2 mm, faces concave at base, base shortly stipitate, apex abruptly contracted into a short beak; style base slightly thickened; stigmas 3. Fr. Jul.

● Forests, ditch sides along valleys; ca. 3400 m. Yunnan.