九仙山薹草 jiu xian shan tai cao

Rhizome rather thick, ligneous, clothed with sheaths, sheaths usually disintegrating into fibers. Culms tufted, 30-70 cm tall, obtusely trigonous, smooth. Leaves basal, equaling or shorter than culm, blades (3-)5-7 mm wide, flat, scabrous on both surfaces and margins, sheathed. Lower involucral bracts leaflike, sheaths up to 3 cm, upper blades of involucral bracts setaceous, shortly sheathed, sheaths only 2-3 mm. Spikes 8-10 or more, usually 1-3 in an involucral bract sheath, lower spikes remote, upper spikes ± contiguous; terminal spike male, linear; lateral spikes female, cylindric, 3-6 cm, loosely many flowered. Female glumes deciduous earlier than utricles, pale, lanceolate-ovate, ca. 3 mm, membranous, 1-veined, hispid on vein, apex mucronate or aristate. Utricles yellowish green, longer than glume, horizontally patent at maturity, elliptic-ovate, plano-convex, ca. 6 mm, papery, shiny, 5-veined abaxially, base broadly cuneate, apex gradually narrowed to a long beak, orifice thinly membranous, shortly 2-toothed. Nutlets loosely enveloped, elliptic, trigonous, ca. 2 mm, base stipitate; stigmas 3. Fl. and fr. May-Jun.

● Wet places in forests, streamsides, grasslands. Fujian (Dehua, Shanghang), Zhejiang.