Slightly Hirsute Sedge

This summer I came across a sedge I had never encountered before.  One of those which immediately upon seeing it, is clearly something weird and different.

I didn't identify it in the field, rather I resorted to one of my favourite evening activities, surrounding myself with books and a microscope and hashing it out.

With a bit of paging through my resources to find an ID and later corresponding with Mike Oldham and Tony Reznicek, sure enough I had found Slightly Hirsute Sedge (Carex hirsutella), listed as S3 (Vulnerable) in Ontario.  Now, this name doesn't have the punch of say Mad Dog Skullcap or Bastard Toadflax, but it certainly is blatantly descriptive.

Below are a few shots I took (don't worry, there's still lots of plant left at the site).

Moving into the fall I'll be doing some invasive brush cutting at a couple of savannah/woodland sites in Waterloo Region over the next couple of weeks, maybe I'll set up a time lapse to capture that.