Carex Under Scrutiny

Day 2: When a rarity is discovered, it is not enough to simply document it and move on. One must seize the opportunity for further investigation in the hopes of bringing something previously unknown or unnoticed to light. In the case of a botanical find, this often involves repeated trips to the site, pulling in various outside experts, analyzing anything and everything which might be a contributing factor in the species' preference for a specific location or ecology.

Since I was clearly out of my depth when it came to sedge identification, our Park plant ecologist took it upon himself to "bone up" on the subject and go into the field with technical manuals in hand. Once he had obtained a specimen of a likely host for the rare fungus we discovered earlier in the year, he sent his findings along to me to see if the same questions were raised in my mind. Indeed they were! He brought me a sample of the sedge so that I could take photos of it through the microscope to validate his ID. A lot of "ifs" followed in our ensuing emails and personal conversations, largely based around the evidence that this is the only sedge at one of the fungus sites. IF we can demonstrate that it hosts the fungus, it will be the first record of Myrio parasitizing this species of Carex. Unfortunately, my minute dissection of all parts of the specimen failed to yield up the slightest trace of the fungus on this individual plant.