Hello everyone and welcome to the Indefense of Plants podcast the official podcast of

IndefenseofPlants.com what's up this is your host Matt welcome to the show how is everyone

doing this week it's been a busy couple of weeks here at Indefense of Plants HQ and

for that reason we're heading into the back catalog of Indefense of Plants episodes

to bring you an episode that I think needs to be heard yet again and that is our sedge

episode or our sedge episode. Sedges don't get nearly enough love and I am guilty of that

myself they're just so difficult to identify without some fine tune machinery and a lot

of attention to detail and I just don't have an image just yet. I'll get there eventually

but that is why people like my friend Paul Markham are so important. Paul is a lover of

all things graminoids but he has a special love for sedges and he is one of the most talented

sedge botanists I've ever met. I don't know anyone personally that has got more aptitude

for identifying them and appreciating them than my friend Paul. So let's go celebrate

sedges with botanist Paul Markham. I hope you enjoy.

Well Paul thanks for coming on the podcast. Yeah I'm glad to be here and do this with you.

So who are you exactly and what do you do? I'm a botanist at the Natural History Survey

and it's what I do now. I'm originally from Columbus, Ohio, grew up in the city and

then ultimately as high school went on we moved to a very small part of southern Ohio

all wooded very country and I think from then on is when I maybe changed my trajectory

of what I thought I would do and got excited about hunting at that time which I don't

want any more of it and just being outside, hiking, getting in nature. So it wasn't plants

right out of the way. It wasn't plants initially I don't think. I think it was just hiking

probably what most high school kids do, hiking, getting outside with your friends and doing

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