打箭薹草 da jian tai cao

Carex ferruginea Scopoli var. tatsiensis Franchet, Nouv. Arch. Mus. Hist. Nat., sér. 3, 10: 55. 1898.

Rhizome with long stolons. Culms 15-30 cm tall, slender, acutely trigonous, smooth, basal sheaths purple-brown. Leaves shorter than culm, blades pale green, linear, 1-2 mm wide, flat, rarely plicate, soft, margins scabrous, apex acuminate. Involucral bracts leaflike, shorter than inflorescence, sheathing 0.7-1.5 cm, purple-brown above. Spikes 3-5; terminal spike male, linear, 1-2 cm; remaining spikes female, distant, rarely with several male flowers at apex, oblong, 1-2 × 0.5-0.8 cm, loosely flowered, with slender scabrous peduncles. Female glumes brown or castaneous, ovate-lanceolate or oblong, 3.5-4 mm, margins broadly white hyaline, 1-veined costa forming a mucro, apex acute. Utricles ferruginous, slightly longer than glume, obliquely patent at maturity, ovate-elliptic, obtusely trigonous, 5-5.5 mm, membranous, slightly lustrous, glabrous, nerveless except for 2 costas on edges, base cuneate, apex abruptly contracted into a scabrous beak 2-3 mm, orifice obliquely truncate, 2-toothed. Nutlets pale brown, tightly enveloped, ovate-elliptic, trigonous, 2.8-3.2 mm, base with a stipe ca. 1 mm; style erect, base not thickened; stigmas 3. Fl. and fr. Jul.

● Alpine meadows, shady and moist grasslands on forested slopes; 3000-4000 m. Gansu, Qinghai, W Sichuan.