Sedge Buster Lesson 16 - Carex emoryi
We are having a little bit of trouble annotating some of the Carex amphibola specimens, and one of the Carex blanda specimens is actually Carex striatula. So we are going to work on those particular sheets another day or two.
Instead of all those then, we will present our views on Carex emoryi, another of our common sedges because C. emoryi is very distinctive in appearance this time of the year as it is happily extruding its sex organs as can be readily appreciated while perusing the nearby photograph. The top spikelet that has mostly reddish things hanging down is all man maybe. The pretty white ones on the very bottom spikelets are all ladies. Some of the middle spikelets are coed with males on top and females below. These spikelets are all immature at this stage so there are no peryginias yet. C.emoryi is one of the two stigma, flat peryginia types and the peryginia are very small. I have been told that viable achene production is very low in this species, and since we do not have any sheets of it at the CB, that is probably true, hinting that we could never find it with mature peryginia. Or, we may have forgotten to collect any because it is so easy to sight identify.
C. emoryi likes to grow is shallow water and is an excellent stabilizer of creek banks. This population, with baldcypress trunks in the background, has persisted for many moons at this location, one of the most flood prone in Travis County.
A second picture shows C. emoryi habitating a drainage ditch. It is very good at providing a pretty, soil stabilizing ground cover in wet places.
_____
Thanks to Paddy on this one.
The Arkdruid
Instead of all those then, we will present our views on Carex emoryi, another of our common sedges because C. emoryi is very distinctive in appearance this time of the year as it is happily extruding its sex organs as can be readily appreciated while perusing the nearby photograph. The top spikelet that has mostly reddish things hanging down is all man maybe. The pretty white ones on the very bottom spikelets are all ladies. Some of the middle spikelets are coed with males on top and females below. These spikelets are all immature at this stage so there are no peryginias yet. C.emoryi is one of the two stigma, flat peryginia types and the peryginia are very small. I have been told that viable achene production is very low in this species, and since we do not have any sheets of it at the CB, that is probably true, hinting that we could never find it with mature peryginia. Or, we may have forgotten to collect any because it is so easy to sight identify. 
C. emoryi likes to grow is shallow water and is an excellent stabilizer of creek banks. This population, with baldcypress trunks in the background, has persisted for many moons at this location, one of the most flood prone in Travis County. 
A second picture shows C. emoryi habitating a drainage ditch. It is very good at providing a pretty, soil stabilizing ground cover in wet places. _____
Thanks to Paddy on this one.
The Arkdruid
posted by ray pistrum at Friday, March 10, 2006
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