A Profusion of Polytaenia

Pronounced or sung as pol-lee-tain-ya’ with emphasis on the final syllable. Yes. Ray enjoys singing the proper noun Polytaenia over and over. It’s like something Moe used to sing. Which reminds Crumby of botanical humor in general. Botanical humor is primarily, low humor. Like pronouncing Silphium with a lisp.

But what if you only have one Polytaenia? Yes. You only have one. One you raised from a tiny seed or pup. Then along comes an ungulate. And that ungulate guzzles up your only Polytaenia.

Boo-hoo-hoo! That’s not funny. But it is ironic. Yes. An important Druid dichotomy involves distinguishing between funny and ironic.

This year at the CB we have so dang many Polytaenia, the ungulates can’t keep up. Oh mercy! And Polytaenia is beloved of the flies and wasps, not to mention the Apiaceous browsers. So with all the Polytaenia this year, there is no irony. That’s good.

Polytaenia is a total mystery genus. That’s because all the famous botanists that knew about the different Polytaenia species are dead now. Yes, dead and gone to that botanical fairyland where all good or even mediocre botanists eventually wind up. Yes. Gone to fairyland prior to any general agreement regarding the various members of the genus.

Karl the Tracker Druid has actually been to the botanical fairy land once or twice, tracking down even the dearly departed. And actually, Crumby wants Karl to go again, hoping Karl can find some of the dead Polytaenia experts. But Karl isn’t much of a botanist so Rayetta or Ray would need to accompany Karl. That way, one of those twain could talk botany with the dead Polytaenia experts. Then once the CB Polytaenia was identified, the responsible Pistrum could bring the resulting interesting information on back to Crumby.