This week’s post delves deep into the heart of the Big Cypress Swamp in the Everglades. Majorie Stoneman Douglas famously described the Everglades as a River of Grass. While this made poetic sense, and brought much needed attention towards Everglades protection, the Everglades is more akin to a River of Sedges. These sedges, with their silicon edges, can cut you mightily. A good way to distinguish a sedge from a grass is from an old rhyme:

Sedges have edges
Rushes are round
Grasses have asses,
straight to the ground

I decided to make a slow motion video of a White Topped Sedge, a native plant, swaying in the breeze. The video was made with the iPhone 5s. The video was shot in slow motion, and you hear what I believe was a hawk around the 20 second mark.

The first photograph below shows two white topped sedges against the base of a cypress tree, along with a bromeliad and perhaps you can identify the other nearby visitor. It was made using the Nikon D610 and an old lens.

The other photograph was made of a white topped sedge against a wetlands forest.

White Topped Sedge