沙地薹草 sha di tai cao

Rhizome creeping, with stolons. Culms 15-40 cm tall, smooth, clothed at base with reddish brown bladeless and blade-bearing sheaths. Leaves shorter than culm, blades linear, 2-3.5 mm wide, stiff, weakly involute. Lower involucral bracts shorter than inflorescence. Spikes 2-5, upper spikes approximate, lower 1 or 2 distant; terminal spike gynaecandrous, sometimes male, clavate, 2-2.5 × 0.8-1 cm; remaining spikes female, ovate to ovate-oblong, 1.5-2 × 0.8-1 cm; peduncles 1-2 cm. Female glumes ferruginous with a pale midrib, ovate, margins white hyaline, apex acute. Utricles yellow-green, broader than but as long as or shorter than glume, ovate, trigonous, 4-5(-6) mm, smooth, 3-5-veined, base broadly cuneate, stipitate, apex abruptly contracted into a smooth, deeply 2-lobed beak. Fr. Jun-Jul.

Sands on hillsides. Xinjiang [Mongolia, Russia (E Siberia); C Asia].

No specimens have been seen by the present authors.