Sedge Buster Part 2 -Cyperus -Lesson 1
Rayetta's mad at me. She's jealous because I am descended from Jesus and I got the rattite bone and she didn't. And Ray, my bosom companion is busy making up lies to go in his autobiography. So that leaves me, Crumby, all alone to continue with sedge buster for the nonce. So I just made an executive decision that was much influenced by the disposition of a certain sheet in the herbarium cabinet. This certain sheet happened to be loose, unfoldered as it were, and right on top. So it got picked at random for Lesson 1.
Why my goodness gracious, as the lovely Hope might say, there it is now, off to the east.
The Cyperus are called flat sedges sometimes. Perhaps this is because the spikelets are flat. These spikelets depicted are very flat. Some of them are so flat that when they are turned sidewise, they are invisible even to the eye of the camera. Note that the botanists use a slightly different terminology for Cyperus parts as compared to Carex parts. Each little collection of florets is termed a spikelet. So a spikelet is made of several to many several florets and there are generally a great many spikelets that together make up an infloresence. The spikelets in the picture belong to (Cyperus polystachyos), an interesting flat sedge because it has lenticular achenes. More on the different types of achene in Cyperus, anon.
Anyhow, there are lots of flat sedges in these parts. They grow in wet places, dry places, and one of them, red nutgrass (Cyperus rotundus) can make a pest of itself in your garden. Historically, the Egyptians of yore made paper out of (Cyperus papyrus). Cyperus can be troublsome to sedge busters, for several of them hybridize, producing offspring that are not in the keys. We have a fairly thick folder of these in the CB herbarium titled, Unidentifed Cyperus Folder. A good many of the flat sedges in these parts don't have common names contained within the vocabularies of the ignorant and vulgar, so except for red nutgrass, I, or maybe we if Ray and Rayetta start heppin, won't use common names in this lesson or subsequent lessons.
Whut else? Oh!
Check these out. There's a floret with its parts identified, a mature brown achene, another achene, and yet another achene with its two stigma/style attached.
Why my goodness gracious, as the lovely Hope might say, there it is now, off to the east. The Cyperus are called flat sedges sometimes. Perhaps this is because the spikelets are flat. These spikelets depicted are very flat. Some of them are so flat that when they are turned sidewise, they are invisible even to the eye of the camera. Note that the botanists use a slightly different terminology for Cyperus parts as compared to Carex parts. Each little collection of florets is termed a spikelet. So a spikelet is made of several to many several florets and there are generally a great many spikelets that together make up an infloresence. The spikelets in the picture belong to (Cyperus polystachyos), an interesting flat sedge because it has lenticular achenes. More on the different types of achene in Cyperus, anon.
Anyhow, there are lots of flat sedges in these parts. They grow in wet places, dry places, and one of them, red nutgrass (Cyperus rotundus) can make a pest of itself in your garden. Historically, the Egyptians of yore made paper out of (Cyperus papyrus). Cyperus can be troublsome to sedge busters, for several of them hybridize, producing offspring that are not in the keys. We have a fairly thick folder of these in the CB herbarium titled, Unidentifed Cyperus Folder. A good many of the flat sedges in these parts don't have common names contained within the vocabularies of the ignorant and vulgar, so except for red nutgrass, I, or maybe we if Ray and Rayetta start heppin, won't use common names in this lesson or subsequent lessons.
Whut else? Oh!
Check these out. There's a floret with its parts identified, a mature brown achene, another achene, and yet another achene with its two stigma/style attached.
posted by ray pistrum at Saturday, March 18, 2006
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