The true Istari

[Boromir88]

Maybe the wizards' staff was just an extension of themselves, a part of the 'shape' they assumed when they entered the world. I find it interesting that the staffs were not named...Tolkien gave everything a name! Perhaps they had no name because they were not really an entity in themselves, but a part of the wizard.

You might be on to something. There obviously is some importance in the staff's if Gandalf gets another one after losing his. Also, the breaking of Saruman staff, signifies him out of the order and out of the Council. Saruman loses a bunch of his potency after his staff is broken. So what, he convinced Treebeard, and then a few brigands to go do his dirty work.