小穗薹草 xiao sui tai cao

Rhizome with slender stolons. Culms 15-50 cm, triquetrous, rather thin, scabrous on upper part, clothed with yellowish brown and bladeless sheaths at base. Leaves equaling or slightly longer than culm, blades 2-4 mm wide, flat, sheathed. Involucral bracts leaflike, longer than spike, nearly not sheathed. Spikes 2-5; terminal 1-3 spikes male, approximate, linear or clavate, 1-3 cm, subsessile; remaining spikes female, remote, oblong, 1.5-2.5 × 0.7-0.8 cm, densely many flowered, pedunculate, lowermost peduncle 2-3 cm. Female glumes brown, ovate, 2.5-3 mm, membranous, costate, white hyaline on margin of apex, apex subacute. Utricles stramineous, slightly brown on upper part, obliquely patent, longer than glume, oblong-ovate, inflated trigonous, 4-4.5 mm, glabrous, slightly shiny, few veined, base rounded, apex gradually narrowed to a medium-sized beak, orifice emarginate. Nutlets rather loosely enveloped; style slender; stigmas 3, rather short. Fl. and fr. Jun-Aug.

Swamps, wet places at lakesides and riversides. Nei Mongol [Mongolia, Russia].