短葶薹草 duan ting tai cao

Carex laxisquamata Tang & F. T. Wang; C. lutchuensis Ohwi; C. obtusobracteata Hayata.

Rhizome short. Culms 10-20 cm tall, trigonous. Basal sheaths dark brown, split into fibers. Leaves longer than culm, blades 4-7 mm wide, flat, smooth, leathery. Involucral bracts leafy, much longer than inflorescence, sheathed. Inflorescence 3-5-noded; spikes many, 3-5 at each node; terminal spike male, linear, 17-45 × 1-1.5 mm, shortly pedunculate; lateral spikes female or mostly with male part at apex, narrowly cylindric, 3-4.5 cm, ca. 3 mm thick, subloosely flowered, sessile or shortly pedunculate. Female glumes ovate-oblong, 2.5-3 mm, ciliate, apex rounded. Utricles green, longer than glume, rhombic-fusiform, trigonous, 3.5-5 mm, membranous, many veined, glabrous or puberulent above, base cuneate, stipitate, apex gradually attenuate into a conic beak, beak ca. 1 mm, 2-toothed at orifice. Nutlet brown to dark brown, tightly enveloped, rhombic, trigonous, 2.5-3 mm, faces excavated in both upper and lower parts, base cuneate, shortly stipitate, apex with distinct short neck ca. 0.3 mm, neck shallowly concave at top, neck and angles yellowish white; style base slightly thickened; stigmas 3. Fl. winter, fr. next spring.

Forests; 400-1000 m. Fujian, Hainan, Taiwan [Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam; Australia].