Eriophorum scheuchzeri | |
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Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Monocots |
Clade: | Commelinids |
Order: | Poales |
Family: | Cyperaceae |
Genus: | Eriophorum |
Species: | E. scheuchzeri |
Binomial name | |
Eriophorum scheuchzeri | |
Eriophorum scheuchzeri is a species of flowering plant in the sedge family known by the common names Scheuchzer's cottongrass and white cottongrass. It has an arctic circumpolar and circumboreal distribution in the Northern Hemisphere. It can be found in Alaska, across Canada, in the Arctic islands, Greenland, Iceland, and across Eurasia. [2] Disjunct occurrences exist in the Rocky Mountains, in the high mountains of southern Europe (the Pyrenees, Alps, and the Caucasus) [3] and on Mount Daisetsu in Japan and some other Asian mountains. [4]
This species is a perennial herb producing colonies via its rhizomes. The thin stems may reach 70 cm (28 in) tall, but they are often much shorter. The rolled leaf blades are up to 12 cm (4.7 in) long. Leaves at the top of the stem have no blades, just black-tipped sheaths. The inflorescence is a solitary flower head with wispy, cottony, bright white, red-tinged, or silvery bristles up to 3 cm (1.2 in) long. [4] [5]
Eriophorum scheuchzeri was first described by the German pharmacist, botanist, entomologist and physician David Heinrich Hoppe in 1800. [1]
This plant can be found at sea level in northern parts of its range and at over 4,000 m (13,000 ft) in elevation farther south. [4] It is a helophyte. It is restricted to wet habitat types, [4] and grows in marshes and wet meadows, by ponds and lakes, and on riverbanks, in moist and wet gravel and sand substrates. [2] It often lines the edges of standing water bodies commonly associated with mosses and other sedges, such as Carex aquatilis . [4]
Native and indigenous peoples have long been familiar with the plant and its uses. The Inuit have at least three names for Scheuchzer's cottongrass: pualunnguat, meaning "imitation mittens"; kumaksiutinnguat, meaning "an imitation object to remove lice"; and in North Baffin, kanguujat, meaning "what looks like snow geese". It has been used as lamp wicks, boot insoles, and swabs. [2] The cottony flowers have been used as dressings to absorb wound drainage. [6] The plant is also edible and sweet-tasting. [2]
This plant is consumed by muskoxen. [2] Waterfowl feed on the seeds. [4]
The Cyperaceae are a family of graminoid (grass-like), monocotyledonous flowering plants known as sedges. The family is large; botanists have described some 5,500 known species in about 90 genera – the largest being the "true sedges", with over 2,000 species.
Aquilegia coerulea, the Colorado columbine, Rocky Mountain columbine, or blue columbine, is a species of flowering plant in the buttercup family Ranunculaceae, native to the Rocky Mountains and some of the surrounding states of the western United States. It is the state flower of Colorado. The Latin specific name coerulea means "sky blue".
Eriophorum angustifolium, commonly known as common cottongrass or common cottonsedge, is a species of flowering plant in the sedge family, Cyperaceae. Native to North America, North Asia, and Europe, it grows on peat or acidic soils, in open wetland, heath or moorland. It begins to flower in April or May and, after fertilisation in early summer, the small, unremarkable brown and green flowers develop distinctive white bristle-like seed-heads that resemble tufts of cotton; combined with its ecological suitability to bog, these characteristics give rise to the plant's alternative name, bog cotton.
Maianthemum canadense is an understory perennial flowering plant, native to Canada and the northeastern United States, from Yukon and British Columbia east to Newfoundland, into St. Pierre and Miquelon. It can be found growing in both coniferous and deciduous forests. The plant appears in two forms, either as a single leaf rising from the ground with no fruiting structures or as a flowering/fruiting stem with two to three leaves. Flowering shoots have clusters of 12–25 starry-shaped, white flowers held above the leaves.
Eriophorum is a genus of flowering plants in the family Cyperaceae, the sedge family. They are found in the cool temperate, alpine, and Arctic regions of the Northern Hemisphere, primarily in the middle latitudes of North America, Europe, and Asia.
Eriophorum callitrix, commonly known as Arctic cotton, Arctic cottongrass, suputi, or pualunnguat in Inuktitut, is a perennial Arctic plant in the sedge family, Cyperaceae. It is one of the most widespread flowering plants in the northern hemisphere and tundra regions. Upon every stem grows a single round, white and wooly fruit. The seeds are covered in this cottony mass and usually disperse when the wind carries them away. Eriophorum callitrix has narrow, grass-like leaves. Its habitats include tundra and calcareous bogs.
Eriophorum gracile is a species of flowering plant in the sedge family, Cyperaceae. It is known by the common name slender cottongrass, or slender cottonsedge. Eriophorum gracile is a plant with circumboreal distribution, extending south into mountain ranges of the Northern Hemisphere. It grows in wet areas such as bogs.
Eriophorum vaginatum, the hare's-tail cottongrass, tussock cottongrass, or sheathed cottonsedge, is a species of perennial herbaceous flowering plant in the sedge family Cyperaceae. It is native to bogs and other acidic wetlands throughout the Holarctic Kingdom. It is a 30–60 cm high tussock-forming plant with solitary spikes.
Carex bigelowii is a species of sedge known by the common names Bigelow's sedge, Gwanmo sedge, and stiff sedge. It has an Arctic–alpine distribution in Eurasia and North America, and grows up to 50 centimetres (20 in) tall in a variety of habitats.
Eriophorum viridicarinatum is a species of sedge known by the common names thinleaf cottonsedge, green-keeled cottongrass, and bog cottongrass. It is native to Canada and the United States.
Vaccinium oxycoccos is a species of flowering plant in the heath family. It is known as small cranberry, marshberry, bog cranberry, swamp cranberry, or, particularly in Britain, just cranberry. It is widespread throughout the cool temperate northern hemisphere, including northern Europe, northern Asia and northern North America.
Dryas integrifolia is a species of flowering plant in the rose family known by the common names arctic avens, entireleaf mountain-avens, white mountain-avens, northern white mountain avens, and mountain avens. It is native to northern parts of North America, where it occurs from Alaska across Canada to Greenland. It is a common species of the Arctic and it is probably the most common flowering plant on some of the western Arctic islands.
Trichophorum cespitosum, commonly known as deergrass or tufted bulrush, is a species of flowering plant in the sedge family. It was originally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1753 as Scirpus cespitosus, but was transferred to the genus Trichophorum by the Swedish botanist Carl Johan Hartman in 1849, becoming Trichophorum cespitosum.
Eriophorum latifolium, commonly known as broad-leaved bog-cotton and broad leaved cotton grass is a species of flowering plant belonging to the family Cyperaceae.
Eriophorum brachyantherum, the closed-sheath cotton-grass, short-anthered cotton-grass or northland cottonsedge, is a species that is a part of the Cyperaceae or sedge family. It is commonly found in wet areas, such as bogs and cooler climate zones.
Trichophorum cespitosum subsp. germanicum is a subspecies of Trichophorum cespitosum. It is a characteristic plant of nutrient-poor moors, wet heaths and moorland forests in Europe. The mostly hedgehog-shaped form of its tufts is characteristic.
Eriophorum virginicum, the tawny cottongrass, is a species of flowering plant in the sedge family Cyperaceae. It is native to eastern North America but was introduced in British Columbia in western Canada. It is most common in eastern Canada, New England, and the Great Lakes region. It is the only species of Eriophorum in North America that occurs in the southeastern United States, where it is uncommon. The common name refers to the tawny color of its fruiting head. Despite the name, it is a sedge, not a grass, and it is sometimes called tawny cottonsedge to emphasize this fact.
Eriophorum tenellum is a species of flowering plant in the sedge family Cyperaceae.