球穗藨草 qiu sui biao cao

Scirpus asiaticus Beetle; S. lineatus Michaux subsp. wichurae (Boeckeler) T. Koyama; S. wichurae var. asiaticus (Beetle) T. Koyama ex W. T. Lee.

Culms 60-100 cm tall, stout, 3-angled, several nodose. Leaves shorter than culm; basal sheaths blackish purple, shiny, apex with a distinct tongue; leaf blade usually shorter than culm, 0.5-1.5 m × 1-1.5 cm, flat, stiff, leathery, margin slightly scabrous. Involucral bracts 5 or 6, leaflike, basal 3 or 4 overtopping inflorescence. Inflorescence a large compound or decompound anthela, turbinate with concave center, 7-10 × 8-15 cm; rays 5 or more, to 9 cm, slender, spreading (often in same direction), pubescent. Spikelets sessile, in glomerules of 3-7, globose, 3-8 × 2.5-3.5 mm, many flowered, apex obtuse. Glumes rusty brown (concolorous), densely arranged, ovate to ovate-deltate, 1.8-2 × ca. 0.8 mm, membranous, with 1 pale brown vein, apex attenuate to mucronate and woolly at maturity from exserted bristle tips. Perianth bristles 6, 1.5-2 × as long as nutlet, erect, basally connate, apical half sparsely antrorsely scabrous. Style filiform, 1.2-1.5 mm. Nutlet pale yellowish brown, ellipsoid to obovoid, ca. 1.3 mm, 3-sided, apex subulate beaked. Fl. and fr. probably Jul-Oct.

Wet places, hillsides, valleys; 1800-2500 m. Guizhou, Liaoning, Qinghai, Shandong, Yunnan [Bangladesh, Bhutan, N India, Indonesia (Sumatra), Japan, Korea, N Thailand].

Scirpus wichurae and S. lushanensis were treated together as S. asiaticus by Tang and F. T. Wang (Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 11: 12. 1961), but we consider them to be quite distinct as can be seen from the key differences. If varieties are recognized for S. wichurae, plants from Japan are the typical variety, and plants from China and elsewhere in the range are S. wichurae var. asiaticus.