1. Cyperaceae
2. Eleocharis
3. Eleocharis quinqueflora

Scirpus quinqueflorus Hartmann, Prim. Lin. Inst. Bot., ed. 2, 85. 1767; Eleocharis meridionalis G. Zinserling; E. pauciflora (Lightfoot) Link; S. pauciflorus Lightfoot.

Perennials. Stolons ca. 1 mm thick. Culms erect, wavy, or rarely recurved, grayish green, tufted, 3-30 cm tall, ca. 0.5 mm thick, obtusely 5-angled. Leaf sheaths 1 or 2, reddish brown to brown, tubular, 1-4 cm, mouth truncate. Spikelet brownish, ovoid to globose, 4-7 mm, 2-7-flowered. Basalmost glume empty, ca. 1/2 as long to as long as spikelet, amplexicaul for whole spikelet base; fertile glumes brown to dark reddish brown, ovate-lanceolate, ca. 4.5 × 1.7 mm, margin broadly to narrowly hyaline, apex acute. Perianth bristles 0-6, of different lengths, usually ca. 1/2 as long as nutlet or rarely slightly longer, retrorsely spinulose. Stigmas 3. Nutlet yellowish gray, obovoid, 1.9-2.5 × ca. 1 mm, plano-convex, appearing smooth but finely cellular reticulate, apex not constricted; persistent style base not inflated, subconic to 3-angled-subulate, 1/5-1/4 as long as nutlet. Fl. and fr. Jun-Jul.

River and lake margins, marshy areas; 800-4700 m. Gansu, Nei Mongol, Shanxi, Xinjiang, Xizang [Afghanistan, NW India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan; N Africa, SW Asia, Europe, North and South America].