Carex filicina Nees In Wight

Rhizome short, stout, w"body. Stems loosely tufted, slender to stout, trigonous, smooth, up to 150 cm by 6 mm near the base, surrounded below the leaves by bladeless, reddish or blackish sheaths. Leaves herbaceous to subcoriaceous, mostly basal but some spaced on the stem, as long as or shorter than the stems, linear, long-attenuate, flat or with revolute margins, scabrid on the margins, (2-)7-20 mm wide. Inflorescence a slender, interrupted or continuous, decompound, fuscous panicle up to 60 cm long; partial panicles 5-13, at 4-8 nodes, single and (middle ones) binate, oblong-lanceolate or pyramidal, erect, rather loose to very dense, up to 12 by 2-5 cm, the upper approximate, the lower usually distant on smooth or scabrid, unequally exserted peduncles; rachis smooth towards the base, hispidulous above. Lower bracts foliaceous, shorter than to slightly exceeding the inflorescence, long-sheathing, the upper much reduced; bracteoles excurrent into a hispidulous awn. Spikelets very numerous, androgynous, oblong, rather loose, 4-15(-20) mm long, the male part shorter than to about as long as the female part. Glumes ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, muticous, rarely minutely mucronulate, membranous, sub-translucent, glabrous or the lower ones hispidulous, finely nerved, ferrugineous, often darker streaked, 1½-2½(-4½) mm long (about as long as the body of the utricle). Utricles triquetrous, not inflated, ellipsoid, membranous, patent, eventually arcuately recurved, conspicuously 2-4-nerved on each face, glabrous, smooth, often shiny, subabruptly beaked, olivaceous to reddish-castaneous, (2.25-)3-5 by 0.5-I mm; beak slender, subulate (scarcely tapering), smooth, or very sparsely scabrid on the margins, (1-)1.5-2(-2.5) mm long (about as long as the body or slightly longer); mouth very oblique (the base ½-0.75 mm from the apex). Nut trigonous, ellipsoid, beaked, closely filling the utricle, 1.25-1.75 by 0.5-I mm. Style-base slightly thickened. Stigmas 3.

It is a tropical plant. It grows in forest openings and grassy areas along river banks. It grows in monsoon areas and hillsides. In southern China it grows between 1,200-2,800 m above sea level. In Sichuan and Yunnan.

The nutlets are eaten raw.