Kobresia royleana

Perennial, 10-50 cm. Rhizome emitting tillers or short stolons. Stem 1-2.5 mm diam., obtusely trigonous or terete, grooved, smooth or scabrous along edges. Leaves ¼ to 2/3 of stem length; sheaths 20-50 mm, yellow-brown, blade-less, glossy, mouth margin slightly oblique; ligule up to c. 0.5 mm, line of attachment almost straight; blades 2.5-4.5 mm, grey-green, flat, flexuous or straight, margins slightly recurved, keel and margins smooth or scabrous towards apex. Inflorescence 17-35 x 7-17 mm, spikes grouped tightly together, lowest occasionally distinguishable, 8-18 mm; lowest bract often elongated; glumes (3.2-) 4-5 mm, widely cymbiform, acute, occasionally with mucro up to 0.2 mm, or obtuse, light-brown to brown, margins widely scarious; utricles 3.5-5.1 x 0.7-0.8 mm, fusiform, somewhat plano-convex, light brown or whole basal part colourless, scarious, from closed to half open; beak not clearly differentiated; stigmas 3, rachilla with (0-) 2-3 staminate flowers. Nut 2.4-2.8 x 0.4-1 mm, incl. c. 0.3 mm style base and up to 0.5 mm stipe, fusiform, triangular, light brown with 3 pale nerves, very finely reticulate with papilla in each areole.

Distribution: Tadjikistan, acc. to Ikonnikov, l.c. 1979 as K. stenocarpa; N Pakistan to Bhutan and SW China.

Fl. & Fr.: July - October.

Subalpine and alpine meadows (pastures); 3000 – 4600 m.

Trilepis royleana Nees in Wight, Contr. Bot. Ind.: 119. 1834; Kobresia stenocarpa (Kar. & Kir.) Steud., Syn. Pl. Cyperac.: 246. 1855; Elyna stenocarpa Kar. & Kir. in Bull. Soc. Imp. Nat. Mosc. 15: 526. 1842; E. kokanica Regel in Acta Horti. Petrop. 7: 563. 1880; Kobresia royleana (Nees) Boeck. var. kokanica (Regel) Kük. in Engler, Pflanzenr. IV.20, 38: 46. 1909; Kobresia paniculata Meinsh., Acta Horti Petrop. 18:279. 1900, nomen novum for Carex paniculata L. sensu Regel, Bull. Soc. Imp. Nat. Mosc., 41: 278. 1869; C.B. Clarke, Ill. Cyper.: tab. 143, figs. 1-3 . 1909.