Sedge Buster Part 3 Eleocharis Lesson 1 (Revised)

Ow! Stop arm froggin' me Rayetta.

Crumby! I told you not to call Olwen a strumpet. Now I mean it. Stop referencing an important moon goddess as a strumpet. And if you do it again I'm gonna really hurt you. Understand?

Yepper.

All righty then. Let's get these nasty little things labeled. Good grief. These are ridiculously tiny. Crumby, don't you have some bigger ones for the first picture?

Noper. This is the default one.

The default one?

Yepper.

Hmmmm.

Owwww. Whut did ye do that fer, Rayetta?

Because Crumby, I was waiting for you to elaborate on the spell, default one, and then, when no elaboration was forthcoming, I became exasperated.

I thought you knew what I meant.

No you didn't.

Yes I did.

No you didn't.

Yes I did.

No you didn't.

Yes I did.

Okie Dokie. There now all those parts are labeled. Now Crumby, explain to everyone what you meant by "the default one".

Easy that Rayetta, the default one is Eleocharis whateverensis.

Hmmmm. And?

It's all the ones ye may collect, but ye cain't figure out from the keys what they may be, fer sure, so ye call 'em E. whateverensis and everyone is generally happy then.

So Crumby. The very first lesson, of Sedge Buster Part 3 Eleocharis covers Eleocharis whateverensis?

Yepper.

Jeez Louise, Crumby. You are such an idiot. Up until now this very moment I thought Ray was a bigger idiot than you, but now I'm not so sure. Why start with one you don't know what is?

Easy that Rayetta, it's the default one.

Hmmm. Well, whatever. All righty then Crumby. Go sit over there out of the way next to the microscopery while a real sedge buster takes over. I, the LDR shall finish this one up myself.

First though, I have to load it up here somewhere. Ha. There it is. Hmmm. Crumby, can you espy in the microscope how many style branches are attached to the baby achene?

Er, maybe.

Well, how many?

Two Rayetta. No. Wait a minute. It has three, maybe.

Crumby!

Er, three, but one of them may have broke off?

Crumby! You are really lalaing me off!

I caint hep it, Rayetta.

Hmmm. All righty then. If you can't help it we'll finish this one, (Eleocharis whateverensis), up, anon.

The (Revised) Part

All righty then. Rayetta, I have a new picture here somewhere.

Let's see. Hmmmm. So it looks like two style tips, or stigmas or style ends of stimgatic tips or whatever. Right Crumby.

Correct Rayetta. That's what I sum too as well, two.

How many baby achenes on this specimen did you count style ends on Crumby?

Er, a few, maybe.

How many is a few Crumby, precisely?

This one.

Go back and count some more Crumby, for style tips is an important key character and that is why we are taking all the trouble to look at the baby achenes, to count style tips to see if we have two versus three.

But they're little and hard to get out their scales without breaking off the styles.

That's right Crumby. But the styles are deciduous from the mature achenes. So if you want to count style ends, you have to do it when the achenes are babies. That's just the way things are, and hard or not, you, Crumby Ovate have to count them. Also, here's a tip for you sedge busters out there. Make sure when you collect an eleocharis that you have both mature and baby achenes on the speicmen. Otherwise it may wind up identified as E. whateverensis.