短轴嵩草 duan zhou song cao

Carex vidua Boott ex C. B. Clarke in J. D. Hooker, Fl. Brit. India 6: 713. 1894; Kobresia harrysmithii Kükenthal; K. prattii C. B. Clarke.

Rhizomes short. Basal sheaths prominent and persistent, brown to dark brown, slightly shiny, not fibrillose, not retaining dried leaf blades. Culms densely tufted, stiffly erect, subterete, (1.5-)3-20 cm tall, slender, 0.8-1(-2) mm in diam. Leaves basal, shorter to longer than culms; blade erect, filiform, 0.5-1.1 mm wide, margin involute. Inflorescence spicate, unisexual; all spikelets 1-flowered. Male spikes pale brown, narrowly ellipsoid, (0.7-)1-2.5 × 0.2-0.5 cm; male glumes pale brown laterally, with yellow midvein, linear-oblong, 4.5-7 × 1-3 mm, apex obtuse. Female spikes compact or slightly lax, brown and partly green, linear or cylindric, 1.3-3.5 × 0.2-0.4 cm; lowest involucral bract glumelike; female glumes brown or chestnut-brown laterally, with green midvein, oblong-ovate, 1.9-5 × 1.3-2.4 mm, papery, midvein very broad (ca. 1/3 width of glume), margin narrowly hyaline, apex rounded or mucronate. Prophylls: lower parts pale green, upper parts brown or chestnut-brown, utriculiform, elliptic or oblong, 2.2-4 × 0.6-1.7 mm, papery, 2-keeled, keels ciliate or smooth, margins fused to apex. Nutlets pale brown, oblong or elliptic, trigonous, 1.6-3.5 × 0.9-1.3 mm, very shortly stipitate, shortly beaked, beak 0.4-1 mm. Stigmas 3. Sterile rachilla of female spikelets less than 1/2 as long as nutlet. Fl. and fr. May-Sep.

Grassy slopes, alpine meadows, on rocks, among shrubs; 3000-5100 m. Gansu, Qinghai, ?Shaanxi, Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan [Bhutan, India (Sikkim), Nepal].