草黄薹草 cao huang tai cao

Rhizome long, obliquely elongate, woody. Culms tufted, 30-75 cm, bluntly trigonous, smooth. Leaves basal and cauline, nearly as long as culms, flat, 1-2 mm wide; persistent sheaths dark brown, fibriform. Involucral bracts leafy, longer than inflorescence branches, long sheathed. Panicle compound, 20-30 cm, 3-5-branched; inflorescence branches single, triangular-ovate, 5-7.5 × 4-5 cm; peduncles of inflorescence branches rigid, trigonous, scabrid on edges; inflorescence axes sharply trigonous, hairy; bractlets glumelike, with long awns. Spikes numerous, bisexual, androgynous, arising from cladoprophylls, dense, obliquely patent, oblong, 10-12 mm; male part of spike longer than female part, with over 10 flowers; female part with over 10 flowers; male glumes pale yellow, oblong-lanceolate, 3-4 mm, papery, apex obtuse and mucronate; female glumes stramineous when dried, slightly shining, ovate-oblong, 2.5-3 mm, papery, 3-veined, margins hyaline, apex obtuse or rounded with short awns. Utricles brownish green, longer than glumes, oblong or ovate-oblong, trigonous, slightly inflated, ca. 3.5 mm, many veined, subsessile, apex contracted into long beak, orifice obliquely truncate. Nutlets broadly ovate, trigonous, 2.5-3 mm; style base thickened; stigmas 3.

Grasslands by woods; 100-1000 m. Guangxi, Guizhou, Yunnan [Bhutan, India, Indonesia (Java), Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand, Vietnam].