Sedge Buster Lesson 14 - Carex planostachys

All righty then. I aint got no hep tonight, agin. Also I want to finish up in here and go outside fer the balance of darkness, or until the clouds roll in. So ahem.

By far, the most common sedge in these parts is cedar sedge (Carex planostachys). Of course and naturally the common name cedar sedge is a misnomer, and should be spelled, juniper sedge. But that's the ignorant and vulgar for you, compounding one mistake with yet another. That aside for the nonce, this is a really important sedge in these parts. It is almost always the most abundant herbaceous plant in juniper/oak woodlands. Sometimes if you happen to be looking around for herbaceous plants under a good juniper/oak canopy, this may be, the only herb you see. Occasionally, under old growth juniper, the park like stands you can walk through erect, it appears lawn like, if you are used to rather cespitose lawns. Oh, oh! What's cespitose Crumby? Easy that, cespitose is when the sedge or grass forms little clumps and does not put out long above ground or underground stems. So this one is cespitose, but under the right conditions as described above, it can look lawn like anyway. Sabby.

I am very fond of this particular sedge. It is always a nice green color and likes all kind of habitats from closed canopy to nearly full sun. And like me, it does not like having its feet wet.

There are a great many caric sedges with characteristics similar to C. planostachys. That is, there are a great many with trigonous achenes, three stigmas, 2-15 spikes per culm and a terminal male (staminiate) spike with female (pistillate) spikes below. Yepper, there are lots with all these characteristics. But hey, even with all these same differences, there is a more obvious difference. C. planostachys is hairy, and hair, of any sort, is a rarity among the caric sedges in these parts. How hairy?, easy that, minutely pubescent. Let's have a look see, we hope its not too nasty.

Yikes. There's something about plant morphology terminology that causes me to become, er, aroused. There. I have admitted to becoming aroused by plant morphology spells so now I feel better, or will in a little while.
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All righty then. I'm back. Where were we. Oh yes indeedy. C. planostachys and its minute pubesence. Well shoot. Let's look at a picture or two.

Here's a peryginia showing minute pubesence. The minute pubesence also occurs on the scales toward the distal ends of the scales, but it is even more minute.

And here are exemplary distal male and proximal female spikes at the end of a culm. The male is the top middle and lacks the peryginial bulges.

Now I am off to view the stars, if indeed I have not tarried too long. Yet none will accompany me, for they are worn out with long labors of recent days, or malingering.