Encyclopedia - Plants for ponds
Sheathed cottongrass
Eriophorum vaginatum
Cottongrass (lat. Erióphorum) — a genus of perennial herbaceous bog plants of the sedge family (Cyperaceae). A small genus comprising 15—20 species. Twelve species occur in the former USSR.
They are mainly distributed in the temperate zone of the Northern Hemisphere. Most species have a wide distribution. A number of species are characteristic plants of the Arctic.
Found in damp areas, often in bogs. In the Arctic they grow in various types of boggy tundra, sometimes on peat-accumulated sites covered with dense moss, sometimes in places with open ground lacking a developed moss cover. Individual species contribute to the trampling of mosses by reindeer and other changes in vegetation associated with human activity, and become roadside plants.
Rhizome horizontal and creeping or forming turves (hummocks). Stems solitary or clustered, up to 40 cm high. Basal leaves longer, stem leaves short, sometimes reduced to sheaths. Leaves narrowly linear, linear, flat or trigonous.
Flowers numerous, bisexual, oval or globular, enclosed singly in the axils of spirally arranged membranous bracts and forming dense spikes, borne singly at stem tips or gathered into umbel-like inflorescences. Bractlets numerous, sometimes 6 in number, smooth and soft, greatly enlarging at fruit and exceeding its length many times to form the so-called “cotton”. There are 3 stamens and 3 styles. The style is deciduous, three-parted.
Fruit — a trigonous or quadrangular nutlet 1.5—3 mm long with a short beak.
Location: planted in shallow water at the edge of a pond or in a marsh. Prefers a sunny location and acidic water, tolerates partial shade.
Soil: peat or silty acidic soil is desirable.
Care: during the growing season ensure the soil does not dry out. Before planting, be sure to add sphagnum peat to the soil, and subsequently mulch the soil around the plants with it. Cutting flower stalks is advisable in spring, since ripe seeds remain on the plants for a long time. Control spreading.
Propagation: by seed and by dividing clumps in spring.