Carex wenchenii F. T. Wang & Tang.

Rhizome short. Culms tufted, 25-60 cm tall, trigonous, slender, smooth, clothed at base with purple-brown sheaths. Leaves shorter than culm, blades 2-3 mm wide, soft. Involucral bracts setaceous, sheathless. Spikes 2 or 3, approximate; terminal spike gynaecandrous, ovate or oblong, 5-10 mm; peduncles slender, lowest one 5-12 mm. Female glumes dark purple-red, ovate or ovate-lanceolate, 2-2.2 mm, 3-veined, margins narrowly white hyaline, apex acute or obtuse. Utricles yellowish green or pale brown, longer than glume, oblanceolate or narrowly elliptic, trigonous, 3-3.5 × ca. 1 mm, not inflated, veined, apex abruptly contracted into a short beak, orifice dark purple, 2-toothed. Nutlets oblong, trigonous, ca. 2 mm; style long, base not thickened; stigmas 3. Fl. and fr. Jul-Aug.

● Forests, wet places. Gansu, Hebei, Qinghai, Shanxi.