413. Carex caespitosa Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 2: 978. 1753.
丛薹草 cong tai cao
Carex minuta Franchet; C. rubra H. Léveillé & Vaniot.
Rhizome short. Culms densely tufted, 40-90 cm tall, slender, trigonous, clothed at base with purple-brown or red-brown bladeless sheaths disintegrating into reticulate fibers. Leaves shorter than culm, blades linear, 2-3.5 mm wide, flat, margins slightly revolute. Involucral bracts setaceous, ± equaling spike, sheathless. Spikes 3 or 4, approximate; terminal spike male, linear or oblong, 20-30 mm; remaining spikes female, occasionally some becoming androgynous and bearing several male flowers at apex, oblong or cylindric, 5-25 × 3-5 mm, with short peduncles. Female glumes purple-brown or ferruginous-brown, narrowly ovate, ca. 2 mm, green and 1-veined medially, margins white hyaline, apex obtuse. Utricles gray-green or light green-brown, ovate to elliptic, ± biconvex or plano-convex, 2-2.5(-3) × ca. 1.2 mm, densely minutely papillose, nerveless or faintly 1-3-veined, base gradually attenuate to cuneate, shortly stipitate, apex contracted into a short beak. Style base not thickened; stigmas 2. Fl. and fr. Jun-Jul.
Marshes, wet places. Heilongjiang, Jilin, Nei Mongol, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Xinjiang [Japan, Kazakhstan, Korea, Mongolia, Russia, Turkmenistan; SW Asia (Caucasus, Turkey); Europe].