连续薹草 lian xu tai cao

Carex rafflesiana Boott var. continua (C. B. Clarke) Kükenthal.

Rhizome with thick fibers. Culms tufted, 60-90 × ca. 0.3 cm, trigonous, glabrous. Leaves basal and cauline, longer than culms, flat, 6-8 mm wide, scabrid along margins and abaxially, glabrous adaxially; persistent sheaths dark brown, fibriform. Involucral bracts leafy, longer than inflorescence, long sheathed. Panicle compound, ca. 30 cm, 5-9-branched; inflorescence branches single, sometimes binate, ovate-triangular, 3-8 × 1.5-3 cm; peduncles of inflorescence branches tenuous, lowest one to 14 cm, upper ones gradually shorter, trigonous, glabrous; inflorescence axes sharply trigonous, densely hairy on edges; bractlets glumelike, ca. 1.5 mm, loosely hairy abaxially, with long scabrid awns. Spikes numerous, bisexual, androgynous, arising from cladoprophylls, patent, oblong-cylindric, 4-10 mm; male part of spike shorter than female part, oblong, densely 4-10-flowered; female part 3-9-flowered, slightly dense; male glumes pale brownish white with dense brown spots and short lines, lanceolate, 1.7-2.5 mm, membranous, with 1 midrib, upper margins hairy, apex acuminate, mucronate; female glumes pale brownish white with dense brown spots and short lines, ovate, 1.8-2.5 mm, membranous, glabrescent later, with 1 midrib, apex acute, awned or mucronate. Utricles pale brownish green with brown spots and short lines, elliptic, trigonous, 2.7-3 mm, membranous, upper part scabrid, with several raised veins adaxially, subsessile, apex attenuate into excurved long beak, orifice obliquely truncate. Nutlets elliptic, trigonous, ca. 1.7 mm, subsessile, apex not mucronate; style base slightly thickened; stigmas 3.

Among shrubs on slopes; ca. 1100 m. S Yunnan [India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam].