C. alexeenkoana Litw. in Trav. Mus. Bot. Acad. Sci. Petersb. 7: 98. 1909.

Perennial, 30-45 cm. Rhizome short, with short ascending stolons. Stem trigonous, smooth. Leaves up to 1/2 of stem length; sheaths 25-40 mm, yellowish to grey-brown, disintegrating into fibres, scarious side scabrous along veins, margin concave; ligule c. 0.2 mm, scarious; blades 1.5-3 mm wide, folded, keeled, smooth or towards apex scabrous along margins and mid-nerve. Inflorescence of 1 male or androgynous and 3-5 female spikes, overlapping or lower remote. Bracts shorter than inflorescence, lowest with sheath to 15 mm. Female spikes 7-25 x 3-5 mm, frequently androgynous, cylindrical, sessile or peduncle c. 20 mm; female glumes 3.8-4.5 x 1.8-2 mm, obovate, obtuse, brown or dark brown, margins widely scarious; utricles 5.2 x 1.7-1.9 mm, ovoid, plano-convex, narrowly winged, upper part barbed, yellow or red brown, stipe 0.3-0.7 mm, beak 0.4-0.5 mm, cylindrical, ostiole with wide scarious margin. Stigmas 3. Nut 3.2 x 1.3 mm, including a persistent c. 0.4 mm style base and c. 0.5 mm stipe, ellipsoid or fusiform, trigonous, yellowish, finely reticulate with papilla in each areole.

Fl. Per.: August.

Type: Nepal, Royle 116 (LIV).

Alpine meadows from 3000 to 5000 m; Distribution: From Dzchungarskiy Alatau and Tian Shan to Hindukush, NE Afghanistan, Karakoram and W Himalayas.

The above description is partly based on material from Nubra by Thomson. The specimen is illustrated, as C. macrogyna Turcz. ex Steud., by Boott, l.c.: tab. 22. It was identified as C. haematostoma by C.B.Clarke (1894). Kükenthal l.c.: 561(1909) assigns the specimen to C. haematostoma var. submacrogyna Kük. Acc. to Egorova l.c. (1967) area of C. macrogyna Turcz. extends from Far East only to the Tian Shan Mts. The utricles in specimens from both Tadjikistan, Gilgit and Kashmir are often infected by Anthracoidea smut species.