窄叶薹草 zhai ye tai cao

Rhizome woody, stoloniferous. Culms tufted, (2-)5-15 cm tall, slender, obtusely trigonous, smooth, clothed at base with purple-red sheaths. Leaves linear, shorter than culm, blades pale green, ca. 1 mm wide, involute, margins minutely dentate, apex curved. Lower involucral bracts setaceous, upper glumelike. Spikes usually 2, rarely 3 or 4, approximate; terminal spike male, occasionally with 1 or 2 female flowers at base, oblong, ca. 10 × 3 mm; lateral spikes female, oblong or ovate, 10-15 × 6-10 mm, densely many flowered; peduncles slender, smooth. Female glumes dark purple-red, ovate-lanceolate, 5-6.5 mm, lustrous, margins broadly white hyaline, green 1-veined costa forming a mucro at apex. Utricles pale green below, dark purple-red above, subequaling glume, elliptic or ovate, compressed, ca. 5 × 2.5 mm, faintly veined, glabrous though slightly scabrous on upper margins, base subrounded, apex abruptly contracted into a short beak or beakless, orifice 2-toothed. Nutlets loosely enveloped, elliptic, ca. 1.2 mm, base with short stipe ca. 0.5 mm; style ca. 3 mm; stigmas 3. Fl. and fr. Jun-Aug.

Slopes, flood lands, thickets, meadows, grasslands; 4000-5500 m. Xizang [India (Sikkim), Nepal].