东亚薹草 dong ya tai cao

Rhizome short. Culms tufted, 30-60 cm tall, triquetrous, smooth, clothed with bladeless light brown sheaths at base, few sheaths disintegrating into fibers. Leaves shorter than culm, blades 3-4 mm wide, flat, rather stiff. Involucral bracts longer than culm, leaflike, lowest sheath long, upper ones rather short. Spikes 3 or 4, rather remote; terminal spike male, linear, 1-2 cm, shortly pedunculate; lateral spikes female, oblong or oblong-cylindric, 1-3 cm, densely many flowered, lowest long pedunculate, upper ones rather shortly pedunculate. Female glumes pale, lanceolate-ovate, 4-5 mm, membranous, 1-3 veined, apex with an awn. Utricles brown-green, obliquely patent, perpendicularly patent at maturity, slightly longer than glume, broadly obovate, inflated trigonous, ca. 4.5 mm, membranous, glabrous, many veined, base distinctly stipitate, apex abruptly contracted into a long beak, orifice 2-toothed. Nutlets brown, slightly loosely enveloped, broadly elliptic or broadly obovate, trigonous, ca. 2 mm; stigmas 3, short. Fl. and fr. Apr-May.

Anhui [Japan].