五台山薹草 wu tai shan tai cao

Rhizome stoloniferous. Culms 55-88 cm tall, erect, trigonous, scabrous above, clothed at base with chestnut-colored or brown, sometimes brown-red, bladeless or shortly bladed sheaths slightly disintegrating into fibers. Leaves longer or shorter than culm, blades linear, 3-5 mm wide, plicate, rather soft, margins scabrous, inrolled. Lower 2 involucral bracts leaflike, longer than inflorescence, remaining bracts setaceous, sheathless. Spikes 3 or 4, approximate; terminal spike gynaecandrous, oblong-obovate, 10-15 mm, male part shorter than female part; lateral spikes female, oblong, 9-12 × 4-6 mm, densely many flowered, scabrous above, with slender peduncles, pendulous. Female glumes brown-red or brown-purple, oblong or ovate-oblong, 2-2.5 × ca. 0.6 mm, 1-veined, margins white hyaline, apex acuminate. Utricles longer than glume, obovate or elliptic, inflated, (2.5-)3-3.3 × 1.5-1.8 mm, membranous, glabrous, densely finely granular, 3-7-veined, base cuneate, beak 0.3-0.4 mm, smooth, curved, orifice white hyaline, 2-toothed. Nutlets brown, loosely enveloped, obovate, trigonous, 1.5-1.8 × ca. 1 mm, base gradually attenuate, apex rounded or truncate; style slightly elongate; stigmas 3.

● Shanxi (Wutai Shan).