Carex tristachya var. pocilliformis (Boott) Kük.

Rhizome short. Stems densely tufted, very slender, erect, trigonous, smooth, 10-40 cm by 0.5-1 mm, clothed at the base with dark brown, more or less fibrous remains of old leaf-sheaths. Leaves basal and subbasal, as long as or shorter than the stems, rather rigid, flat, gradually attenuate, 1.5-4 mm wide. Inflorescence with 3-7 spikelets, erect, fastigiate or lower spikelets more distant on exserted peduncles; terminal spikelet male or gynaecandrous, cylindrical, 0.5-3 cm by 0.5-1 mm, lateral ones female, slenderly cylindrical, rather loosely flowered, 1-3 cm by 2-2.5 mm; peduncles smooth. Lower bracts foliaceous, shorter than to slightly exceeding the inflorescence, upper reduced. Glumes of the male spikelet cup-shaped (the margins more than halfway connate in front) but not so in gynaecandrous spikelets, muticous, those of the female spikelets ovate or oblong-ovate, rounded at the ciliolate apex, glabrous, muticous or mucronulate, light brown with whitish hyaline margins and 3-nerved central stripe, 2 mm long. Stamens monadelphous (filaments connate almost throughout their length), not always so in lower flowers. Utricles trigonous, ellipsoid, membranous, many-nerved, sparsely pubescent, suberect, recurved at the top, shortly stipitate, gradually tapering above, green to brownish, 2.5-3 by ¾-1 mm; beak subconical, glabrous or his-pidulous-margined, bidenticulate, ½ mm long. Nut oblong-ovoid or oblong-ellipsoid, triquetrous with faces concave below, stipitate, c. 2 mm long, stramineous to dark brown, rounded above and abruptly contracted into a short neck which is suddenly expanded into the annulate apex. Style-base pyramidally thickened, persistent. Stigmas 3.

Open meadows and grassy slopes, 2200-2700 m.