疏鳞莎草 shu lin suo cao

Cyperus stenostachyus Bentham var. indicus C. B. Clarke; C. subcapitatus C. B. Clarke; C. tenuifolius L. K. Dai (1961), not (Steudel) Dandy (1944).

Perennials. Rhizomes creeping, sometimes with tubers. Culms solitary, 40-50[-80] cm tall, acutely triquetrous, smooth, with 1 or 2 leaves, basalmost part ± swollen. Leaves much shorter than culm; sheath brown, equaling or longer than leaf blade; leaf blade 1-1.5 mm wide. Involucral bracts 2 or 3, subulate, usually shorter than inflorescence, longest erect. Inflorescence a simple anthela, lax; rays 3 or 4, mostly to 8 cm, slender, smooth. Spikes obovoid, with 2-6 spikelets. Spikelets linear to linear-oblong, 1-2.5 cm × ca. 2 mm, 12-26-flowered; rachilla wings white, linear, hyaline. Glumes reddish brown, very lax, eventually extended, oblong-ovate, 2.5-3 mm, papery, 5-7-veined with middle 3 green and conspicuous, not keeled, apex obtuse to rounded and muticous. Stamens 3; anthers linear, 1-1.3 mm; connective ± long and prominent beyond anthers. Style ± long to medium long; stigmas 3, ± slender. Nutlet straw-colored, narrowly obovoid, ca. 1.2 mm, ca. 2/3 as long as subtending glume, 3-sided, minutely punctate. Fl. and fr. Oct-Nov.

Ditch margins; 700-800 m. Yunnan (Mengla, Zhenxiong) [India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand; Indian Ocean islands, Madagascar].