Carex parva Nees

Loosely tufted perennial, c. 20 cm. Rhizome horizontal, covered with soon disintegrating scales. Stem terete or obtusely angular, deeply grooved, smooth. Leaves c. 1/2 of stem length; sheaths 15-35 mm, silver-grey, glossy, margin of scarious side straight; ligule c. 0.2 mm, arch almost straight; blades few, c. 1 mm diam., succulent, smooth, adaxial side merely groove. Inflorescence a single, inconspicuous, androgynous spike. Bract erect, caducous, amplexicaul, canaliculate, equalling spike length. Male glumes c. 7.4 x 1 mm, amplexicaul, carinate, acute, margin scarious at apex, light brown. Female glumes c. 7 x 1.6 mm, caducous, lanceolate, obtuse, margins widely scarious, light brown. Utricles 8.2-8.5 x 1-1.4 mm, fusiform, almost terete, soon reflexed, yellowish to dark brown, with many conspicuous, dark nerves, beak c. 3 mm, cylindrical, smooth, dark brown, ostiole oblique, with wide scarious margin; rachilla within utricle, extending to beak, but not protruding. Stigmas 3. Nut 3.4 x 1.2 mm, narrowly ellipsoid, yellow brown, finely reticulate.

C. Asia, Himalaya, Tibet, C. China.

Distribution: Central Asia, from Zailiiskij Alatau Mts. to Hindukush and Pamir, eastwards to Nepal and China.

2800-4300 m

Fl. Per.: July-August.

Boggy mountain meadows at 3000-5000 m.

Carex parva, also known to Chinese people as xiao tai cao, is a tussock-forming species of perennial sedge in the family Cyperaceae. It is native to parts of Asia from Afghanistan to Mongolia.

The sedge has a loosely-tufted habit and has thick horizontal rhizome that can be up to 20 cm (7.9 in) in length and covered in scales that disintegrate in time. The soft, smooth and sometimes flattened culms reach a height of 10 to 35 cm (3.9 to 13.8 in) and have brown coloured basal sheaths.

The species was described by the botanist Christian Gottfried Daniel Nees von Esenbeck in 1834 as published in Contributions to the Botany of India. The type specimen was collected in a boggy meadow in the Kishenganga Valley leading to Nanga Parbat in Kashmir. There are three synonyms; Carex macrorhyncha, Carex unifoliata and Kobresia lolonum.

The range of the plant extends from Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan in the west to the coast of China in the east. It is found from Kazakhstan and Mongolia in the north to Pakistan in the south. It is found throughout the Himilayas.