秀丽薹草 xiu li tai cao

Carex munda var. mundiformis T. Koyama.

Rhizome creeping. Culms 20-40 cm, less than 1 mm thick, trigonous, tenuous, soft, smooth. Leaves slightly longer than culms, flat, 2.5-3.5 mm wide, glabrous; basal persistent leaf sheaths pale brown. Involucral bracts leafy, longer than spikes, with long sheaths. Spikes 3-7, bisexual, androgynous, distant, linear-cylindric, 1.5-2 cm, lowest one single and often arising from base of culm, middle ones binate, upper ones binate or ternate, terminal one with 1 or 2 branches, male part longer than female part, branched spikes arising from cladoprophylls with a developed female flower inside; male part of lateral spikes shorter than female part, lateral spikes borne from sheaths; male glumes yellowish brown, ovate-lanceolate, 3-3.5 mm, membranous, with 1 midrib, apex acuminate; female glumes yellowish brown laterally, green at middle, ovate or oblong, 2.5-3 mm, 3-veined, margins hyaline, apex obtuse or emarginate, apiculate. Utricles yellowish green, upright, longer than glumes, elliptic, bluntly trigonous, 3-4 mm, membranous, with 2 lateral veins and several fine veins abaxially, base contracted into a short stipe, apex abruptly contracted into a short excurved beak, orifice truncate. Nutlet pale brown at maturity, ovate, trigonous, ca. 2 mm, base shortly stipitate, apex apiculate; style base slightly thickened; stigmas 3. Rachilla if present 0.2-0.3 mm, flat.

Abies forests, alpine shrubs and meadows; 3500-3900 m. SE Xizang [Bhutan, NE India, Nepal].