葱岭薹草 cong ling tai cao

Rhizome short, ascending, stoloniferous. Culms tufted, 15-25 cm tall, trigonous, scabrous above, slightly curving, clothed at base with brown sheaths eventually disintegrating into parallel fibers. Leaves ca. 1/2 length of culm, blades linear, 1.5-2.5 mm wide, erect, apex long acuminate. Involucral bracts leaflike, 2 × as long as spike, sheathing 5-8 mm. Spikes 2 or 3; terminal spike male, lanceolate to lanceolate-clavate, 1-1.5 cm, sessile; remaining spikes female, obovate, 1-1.5 cm, loosely slightly patent, with short peduncles 5-8 mm. Female glumes reddish ferruginous, ovate, margins white hyaline, apex long acuminate. Utricles yellowish or grayish green, much longer than glume, obovate-lageniform, compressed trigonous, ca. 5 mm, thinly leathery, scattered setulose adaxially, nerveless, upper margins scabrous, apex abruptly tapering into a flattened long beak, beak scabrous on margins, deeply 2-lobed at orifice. Fr. Jun.

Meadows in valleys; 2000-3500 m. Xinjiang [C Asia].