林氏薹草 lin shi tai cao

Carex sinocrispa Raymond.

Rhizome woody. Culms tufted, lateral, flaccid, 15-40 × ca. 0.1 cm, trigonous, loosely hairy and then glabrescent, base with pale to deep brown sheaths. Leaves basal and cauline; basal leaves tufted, narrowly elliptic to linear-elliptic, 12-30 × 2-2.5 cm, glabrous or scabrid along abaxial veins, base attenuate, margins densely replicate, apex acuminate; petiole 5-20 cm, subglabrous; cauline leaves pale greenish white, sometimes with brown spots and short lines, spathelike, loosely pubescent. Involucral bracts spathelike. Panicle simple, triangular-ovate, 1.5-3 × 2-3 cm, ca. 10-spiked; peduncles of inflorescence branches tenuous, densely hairy; bractlets glumelike, 2.5-3 mm, glabrous. Spikes bisexual, androgynous, arising from flowerless utriculiform cladoprophylls, oblong, patent horizontally, 4-10 mm; male part of spike suborbicular to oblong; female part 3-10-flowered, nearly as long as male part; male glumes pale brownish white with dense brown spots and short lines, oblong-lanceolate, 2.2-2.5 mm, membranous, with 1 midrib, apex obtuse; female glumes similar to male ones. Utricles brownish white with dense brown spots and short lines, ovate-elliptic, trigonous, obliquely or horizontally patent, ca. 3.5 mm, membranous, with 2 lateral veins abaxially, subsessile, apex contracted into long beak, orifice obliquely truncate. Nutlets brown at maturity, ovate, trigonous, 1.5-1.8 mm; style base thickened; stigmas 3.

● Woods, shady places. Fujian, Zhejiang.