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Hare's-Tail Cottongrass

Hare's-Tail Cottongrass

Eriophorum vaginatum

Identify the Hare's-Tail Cottongrass from a photo and log your finds with Florapass.

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How common: Very common

Hare’s-tail cottongrass is a clump-forming bog plant with a single, showy white cotton tuft on each stem after flowering. It is widespread across the cool parts of Europe, Asia and North America and is a familiar sight on open peatlands.

Did you know?

  • The white “cotton” appears after flowering: it is a mass of long silky hairs that helps the seeds drift in the wind.
  • It grows in tight tussocks that rise above the bog surface, forming hummocks over time.

About the species

Identification

Forms dense tussocks without runners, 40–70 cm tall. Stems are stiff, upright and mostly leafless, with 2–3 loose, brown, tube-like leaf-bases low on the stem (about 5–7 cm). Leaves are very narrow (about 1–1.5 mm), shorter than the stem, and mostly at the base. Each stem ends in a single head: first small and dark, then the hairs grow up to about 3 cm, making a round, white cotton tuft. Each tuft hides a small hard seed. Unlike common cottongrass, it has one cotton head per stem and dense, mound-like clumps. Flowers in Finland in May–June.

Plant group

Grasses, sedges and rushes

Habitat

mire

Flowering

May–Jun

About the habitat

Grows in wet, acidic, nutrient-poor peatlands such as raised bogs, poor fens and wet conifer mires; sometimes along lake and river edges. Common throughout Finland; especially abundant in the north.

Sources

Photo: böhringer friedrich, CC BY-SA 2.5 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Scheiden-Wollgras Eriophorum vaginatum 2.jpg

Text: Pinkka: BIO-503 Suomen kasvisto ja kasvillisuus - Itämeri: karut rannikkometsät, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.40261

Text: Pinkka (Luomus), CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.40261

Text: Pinkka: Kasvitieteen retkeily Lammille - Untulaharju, luontopolku, Lammin kirkonkylä, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.40261

Text: Wikipedia (Finnish), CC BY-SA 4.0 https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupasvilla

See also