辽东薹草 liao dong tai cao

Carex wallichiana Sprengel f. glabrescens Kükenthal in Engler, Pflanzenr. 38(IV. 20): 749. 1909; C. drymophila Turczaninow ex Steudel var. glabrescens (Kükenthal) Kitagawa; C. drymophila var. pilifera Kükenthal; C. fedia Nees ex Wight var. pilifera (Kükenthal) T. Koyama.

Rhizome short, with long and rather thick stolons. Culms 30-50 cm tall, triquetrous, stout, slightly scabrous on upper part, with red-brown and bladeless sheaths at base, sheaths later usually splitting into reticulate fibers at lateral side. Leaves longer than culm, blades 3-4 mm wide, flat, stiff, scabrous on adaxial surface and margins, smooth on abaxial surface, sheathed, with transverse septate nodes between veins. Involucral bracts leafy, lower involucral bracts shortly sheathed, upper ones nearly not sheathed, setaceous at base of male spikes. Spikes 5 or 6; terminal 2 or 3(or 4) spikes male, approximate, linear, 2-4 cm, subsessile; remaining spikes female, rather remote, cylindric, 4-5 cm, densely many flowered, rather lax at base, upper spikes subsessile, lower ones shortly pedunculate. Female glumes red-brown laterally, green at middle, narrowly ovate, ca. 5 mm, 3-veined, margins white hyaline, apex acuminate, mucronate or aristate, scabrous on margins of awn or mucro. Utricles stramineous, obliquely patent, longer than glumes, broadly ovate or ovate, slightly inflated trigonous, 5-6 mm, thickly membranous, laxly hispidulous, distinctly several veined, base subrounded, shortly stipitate, apex abruptly narrowed to a medium-sized beak, ciliate on beak margins, orifice slightly long 2-toothed. Nutlets loosely enveloped, elliptic, trigonous, ca. 2.5 mm; style usually curved, base not thickened; stigmas 3.

Wet places at forest margins on mountain slopes. Liaoning [Japan, Korea].