POTD: Views From the Pond #8

Views From the Pond #8
Bozeman, Montana
2021

Some years ago, I gathered various native grass seeds to plant on some disturbed soil. There are so many different varieties of grass and grass-like plants I downloaded an app to try and help me identify what I was growing. The main thing I learned from the app and from reading about grasses in general is that it’s very hard for a mere layman like myself to determine anything but broad categories of these plants. One thing I did learn is that there is a difference between true grasses and the grass-like sedges such as that pictured here. It turns out that sedges are easy to distinguish from grasses because “sedges have edges” per a common identification rhyme. That is, the stems of sedges are generally not round but triangular in cross-section. The easiest way to tell if you’re holding a sedge is to roll it between your fingers. If it does not roll smoothly it has angular sides and is a sedge.