My last blog discussed a group I started called "Sedgenet." Someone asked me if some questions and I gave them a response similar to this blog but decided to post a new blog here.

 

 

A sedge is kind a plant.  Notice that I did not say, “Sedge is a kind of plant.”  You can also say, “Sedges are plants.”  Sedges do look like grasses that sedges usually have triangular stems and grasses usually have round stems.  There are other differences between these two families of plants.  The majority of sedge species are associated the water but many times grow in other habitats including dry rocky outcrops, alpine meadows, lawns, grasslands, and upland forested habitat.

 

Question: What is a sedgehead?

 

The word Sedgehead is like the word motorhead.  People who are interested in working on cars in motors are sometimes called motorheads.  Botanists modified the name to apply to people who study sedges.  I didn’t like the name it first but I claimed it in 1995 on the internet and now if you search the internet for Sedgehead you will often find something related to me.  The genus Carex is a type of sedge.  They are very common plants in most areas outside of the tropics or the polar regions.  For example, 131 kinds grow in my home state of Arkansas.

 

Question: Are you good at growing plants and flowers?

 

Botany has three major fields, horticulture, agriculture, and scientific botany.  My primary interest is in ecology and sedges but I do grow a garden and know a little bit about horticulture and agriculture.  I mainly study these things from a scientific point of view.

 

Question: Why do you say "It is like being the world's expert on sedges in Jiangsu Province", I don't understand this . I am from Jiangsu Province.

 

I was comparing Jiangsu Province with the U.S. state of Arkansas.  Jiangsu may only have one are two people who are interested in sedges.  So if you become an expert in sedges and you live in Jiangsu Province you can become the world’s expert on the sedges of Jiangsu Province in the same way that I have become the world’s expert on the sedges of Arkansas.