峨眉薹草 e mei tai cao

Carex omeiensis var. multifascula Q. S. Wang.

Rhizome rather long, ligneous, horizontal. Culms laxly tufted, 40-65 cm tall, triquetrous, smooth, scabrid nearly apex, clothed at base with dark brown and bladeless sheaths. Leaves slightly short, equaling or slightly longer than culm, blades 0.4-1.2 cm wide, flat, ± stiff, smooth on adaxial surface, scabrous on abaxial surface and margins; sheaths 5-10 cm, dark brown, membranous part of sheaths usually splitting to base. Involucral bracts sheathed, lower involucral bract blades leaflike or setaceous, usually shorter than spike, upper bracts bladeless, sheaths 5-7 mm, brownish, white hyaline on margins of mouth. Spikes numerous, 3-8 spikes fascicled in an involucral bract sheath; terminal spike male; remaining spikes female, densely arranged in a raceme near apex, cylindric, 10-20 mm, sparsely few to more than 10-flowered, thinly pedunculate. Female glumes brownish yellow, ovate, ca. 2 mm, membranous, 1-costate. Utricles reddish brown, suberect, longer than glume, elliptic, plano-convex, 2.5-3 mm, membranous, glabrous, 7-9-veined abaxially, base abruptly contracted into a short stipe, apex gradually narrowed into a short beak less than 1 mm, orifice emarginate. Nutlets yellowish brown, tightly enveloped, ovate-orbicular, plano-convex, ca. 1.5 mm, base estipitate; style persistent, base slightly thickened; stigmas 2. Fl. and fr. May-Aug.

● Watersides in valleys, roadsides on mountain slopes, wet places in forests; ca. 1800 m. Hubei, NW Hunan, Shaanxi, Sichuan (Emei Shan).