Sedge Buster Part 2 Cyperus Lesson 8

Tonight's lesson, Sedge Busters, is "Most leaves reduced to mere bladeless sheaths" which spell is in all the dichotomous keys. I can recall staring at this spell in wonder many times, wondering whut the heck it meant. And actually, I never did figure out what it means on my own. The WG had pity on me one night and sent an epiphany to hep me understand.

Here's whut always baffled me about this spell. Leaves and sheaths are different. Generally leaves grow at the distal ends of sheaths. Contrariwise, sheaths are the parts at the base of the leaves and generally encircle something, usualy a culm or an infloresence branch. They are a tube, generally. So no matter how much ye reduce a leaf, how do ye convert it into a tube. It's ridickle-dockle.
_____

Crumby, says the WG, why are ye not at rest upon my ample bosoms?

I caint sleep Goddess. A spell is drivin' me crazy.

Oh my goodness Crumby. Is it that bladeless sheath spell? Ha! What that spell really means is that the sheaths look like leaves and the leaf parts of the sheaths are very little.

Er. Hmmm. Then why don't it spell that way?

Oh my goodness Crumby. Don't fret about that. Go to sleep.

All righty then Goddess.
_____

So now I have provided a picture here somewhere maybe, to show ye what the WG knew and told me. This is Cyperus haspan. See, there are two sheaths shown. One has lotsa spikelets stickin out and the other one just barely has its spikeltes coming out. Where's the leaf part, ye query? Look at the lower sheath. There's a leaf stuck on its fer (distal) end.

The second picture shows an achene or two and a closeup of a spikelet. All these structures are very tiny and hard to take a picture of. I had to use a 12.5mm Celestron X-cel ep to get even this close and still have some light. The achenes are white, as ye may espy, and have many protuberances.