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Eriophorum scheuchzeri
Also called Scheuchzer's Cottongrass, One Spike Cottongrass, Scheuchzer's Arctic Cottongrass, Scheuchzer's Cotton Grass, White Bristle Cotton Grass, Dense Cotton Grass, Shealted Cotton Grass
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. Disjunct occurrences exist in the Rocky Mountains, in the high mountains of southern Europe (the Pyrenees, Alps, and the Caucasus) and on Mount Daisetsu in Japan and some other Asian mountains.
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. It is a helophyte. It is restricted to wet habitat types, and grows in marshes and wet meadows, by ponds and lakes, and on riverbanks, in moist and wet gravel and sand substrates. It often lines the edges of standing water bodies commonly associated with mosses and other sedges, such as Carex aquatilis.
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. The cottony flowers have been used as dressings to absorb wound drainage. The plant is also edible and sweet-tasting.
Tall cottongrass · Northland cottonsedge · Arctic cottongrass · Chamisso's cottongrass · Slender cottongrass · Broad-leaved cottongrass · Fewnerved cottongrass · Tussock cottongrass · Tawny cottongrass · Thinleaf cottonsedge · Cottongrass
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Eriophorum scheuchzeri by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts are shared under the same licence.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
