134. Carex callitrichos V. I. Kreczetowicz in Komarov, Fl. URSS. 3: 613. 1935.
羊须草 yang xu cao
Rhizome elongate, creeping or obliquely ascending. Culms loosely tufted, 2-6 cm tall, hair-shaped, obtusely trigonous, smooth; sheaths red-brown, persistent at base. Leaves 5-6 × as long as culm, blades 0.2-0.8(-1) mm wide, hair-shaped, soft, glabrous, rarely loosely pubescent. Involucral bracts spathelike, 7-10 mm, smooth, acute at apex, membranous on margins of sheath mouth, without distinct involucral bract blade. Spikes 2-4, remote; terminal spike male, cylindric, 5-8 mm, 1-1.5 mm thick, few flowered; lateral spikes 1-3, female, linear, 5-7 mm, loosely 1-3-flowered; peduncle short, usually not exserted from involucral bract sheath; rachis tortuous. Female glumes ferruginous or pale ferruginous laterally, green at middle, lanceolate, 3-4 mm, 1-veined, margins broadly white hyaline, apex acuminate or acute, mucronate. Utricles greenish, shorter than glume, obovate, obtusely trigonous, 2.5-3 mm, pubescent, distinctly 2-veined laterally and obscurely thinly several veined, base abruptly contracted to a bent and short stipe, apex rounded and very shortly beaked, orifice emarginate or truncate, usually brownish. Nutlets brown at maturity, oblong-obovate, trigonous, 2.3-2.5 mm, base contracted into a short stipe, apex rounded and shortly beaked; style base slightly thickened; stigmas 3. Fl. and fr. Apr-Jul.
Pinus forests, mixed forests, mountain slopes; 800-1000 m. Hebei, Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Nei Mongol [Japan, Korea, Russia (Far East, E Siberia)].
The stems and leaves may be used for making paper and rope.
