异型菱果薹 yi xing ling guo tai

Carex heteroclita Franchet, Bull. Soc. Philom. Paris, sér. 8, 7: 28. 1895; C. grallatoria subsp. heteroclita (Franchet) T. Koyama.

Rhizome slender, ca. 1 mm thick, covered with red-brown scales. Culms tufted, 5-20 cm tall, filiform, scabrid above. Leaves many, radical, elongate after anthesis, longer than culms, blades 2-3 mm wide, flattish, soft; sheaths sanguineous-purple or dusky-brown, split into reticulate fibers. Inflorescence 1-spiked, terminal, androgynous; male part linear to linear-oblong, 1-1.5 mm thick, several flowered; female part 1-2 cm, loosely bearing 3-8 flowers. Female glumes pale laterally, stained with sanguineous brown on upper half or 1/3, oblong to obovate-oblong, ca. 3.5 mm, membranous, greenish costa 1- or obscurely 3-veined, base clasping rachilla, apex obtuse to subtruncate. Utricles pale greenish to pale yellowish, slightly longer than glumes, erect-patent to patent, obovate-oblong to obovate-elliptic, trigonous, 3.5-4 mm, thinly herbaceous to membranous, sparsely hirsute on upper half, nerveless except 2 costas, base gradually tapering into short stipe, apex abruptly contracted into short, recurved, conic beak, orifice not toothed. Nutlet tightly enveloped, obovate-oblong, trigonous, 2-2.5 mm; stigmas 3.

Grasslands, forest margins. Taiwan [Japan].

No specimens have been seen by the present authors. The description is based mainly on Fl. Taiwan (ed. 2, 5: 215. 2000).

Carex grallatoria var. grallatoria, with plants dioecious, is endemic to Japan.