紫红鞘薹草 zi hong qiao tai cao

Rhizome oblique, woody. Culms tufted, 25-28 cm tall, obtusely trigonous, smooth, basal sheaths purple-red, disintegrating into fibers. Leaves longer than culm, blades greenish, linear, ca. 2.5 mm wide, margins scabrous, apex long acuminate. Involucral bracts reduced to shortly bladed, shorter than inflorescence, sheathing 1.5-2 cm. Spikes 3, distant; terminal spike male, linear, 48-50 × 1.5-2.5 mm, densely many flowered; lateral spikes female, cylindric, 2.8-3.2 × 0.3-0.4 cm, slightly densely many flowered, with peduncles 3-9 cm. Female glumes brown, ovate or broadly oblong, 3.3-3.5 mm, margins white hyaline, green 1-veined costa forming a mucro, apex acute. Utricles stramineous, longer than glume, oblong-lanceolate, trigonous, 3.5-4 mm, hirsute, veins slightly conspicuous, contracted at both ends, base shortly stipitate, apical beak 1-1.3 mm, hispidulous on margins, orifice obliquely truncate, shallowly 2-lobed. Nutlets tightly enveloped, elliptic, trigonous, 2-2.2 mm; style erect, base conspicuously thickened; stigmas 3. Fl. and fr. Apr-May.

● Shady valleys, rocky places in sparse forests; 1000-1700 m. Guangxi.