As we just saw in the previous section, Upper Egypt as a region is in the script not (as we would have expected)  indicated with a lotus sign, but with a sign that depicts a very different plant: a sedge. More specifically: M26 represents a flowering sedge. So let us take a closer look at this species.

We have already met the sedges briefly: they are the family of which papyrus is a member (see section 5: “Papyrus: introduction”).

To simply label a plant “a sedge” is hardly more specific than calling it a weed. The Encyclopedia Britannica’s definition of a sedge is: any plant of the family of Cyperaceae: a family of “grasslike herbaceous plants found especially in wet regions throughout the world”. It adds that this family is among the 10 largest families of flowering plants, counting some 5,000 species. Nevertheless, M23 and M26 do indeed remind one of sedge-like plants. However, to be more specific about the exact species would simply require more detailed drawings of the plant in question than the Egyptians have left us.
To give you an idea what this mysterious sedge may have looked like, I’ve collected a few typical examples. Here they are: 

© kgNaturePhotography.com, section of Wetland Sedges (non-Carex).

The Cyperus species is from the same genus as papyrus. Scirpus is another genus from the family of Cyperaceae. I’ve included the Scirpus varieties because Gardiner mentions “scirpus-reed” as a possible identification of M23/M26 (Grammar, 73). Unfortunately, Scirpus has over 40 different species.

And as a bonus: this pretty sedge (again a  Cyperus variety), from the website of Florida Nature Pictures.       From: www.floridanaturepictures.com