Biorepository Data Portal

Plants colonial from long-creeping rhizomes. Culms 40-120 cm × 0.6-1 mm, smooth or scabrous distally. Leaves: blades flat, trigonous in cross section distally, to 30 cm × 1.5-4 mm; distal leaf blade much longer than sheath. Inflorescences: blade-bearing involucral bracts 2-5, sometimes brown-tinged proximally, leaflike, longest 4-12 cm. Spikelets 2-10, usually in dense head, ovoid, 6-10 mm in flower, 10-20 mm in fruit; peduncles 2-10(-20) mm, scabrid; scales brown, often with green center, ovate-oblong, 4-5 mm, obscurely ribbed or with 3-5 equally prominent ribs, apex obtuse. Flowers: perianth bristles usually 10 or more, brown at least at base, rarely entirely white, 12-18 mm, smooth; anthers 0.7-1.5 mm. Achenes dark brown to black, narrowly obovoid or ellipsoid, 2.5-4 mm. Fruiting mid summer-early fall. Bogs, meadows; 0-1000 m; St. Pierre and Miquelon; N.B., Nfld. and Labr., N.S., Ont., P.E.I., Que.; Conn., D.C., Ill., Ind., Maine, Md., Mass., Mich., Minn., N.H., N.J., N.Y., N.C., Ohio, Pa., R.I., S.C., Tenn., Vt., Va., W.Va., Wis.

Perennial herb with long-creeping rhizomes, colonial 40 cm - 1 m tall Leaves: alternate, to 30 cm long, 1.5 - 4 mm wide, flat with a three-angled tip, linear, parallel-veined, with a sheathing base that encloses the stem. The upper leaf blade is much longer than its sheath. Inflorescence: a terminal, dense head of two to ten spikelets, subtended by leaf-like bracts. Bracts blade-bearing, two to five, unequal, to 12 cm long, much surpassing the inflorescence. Flowers: minute, subtended by a floral scale, lacking sepals and petals, bearing numerous hair-like bristles that form a dense, cottony tuft when the spikelet reaches maturity. Bristles persistent, brownish or coppery, rarely entirely white, more or less straight, elongated, 1 - 2 cm long, much longer than the achene. Stamen one, exserted. Anthers 1 - 1.5 mm long. Pistil one. Style three-cleft. Fruit: a one-seeded achene, brown to black, 2.5 - 4 mm long, one-third as wide, narrowly reverse lance-shaped or ellipsoid, three-angled. Seed with a thin, non-adherent wall. Culm: stiff, upright, 40 cm - 1 m long, to 1 mm wide, solid. Spikelets: on 2 - 10 mm long stalks, 0.5 - 1 cm long in flower, 1 - 2 cm long in fruit, egg-shaped. Floral scales spirally arranged, brown with a greenish middle, 4 - 5 mm long, narrowly egg-shaped with a blunt apex, obscurely ribbed or prominently three- to five-ribbed.

Similar species: This species is easily distinguished from Eriophorum angustifolium and E. viridicarinatum by having colored bristles (which elongate in August and September) and a single stamen. The previously mentioned species bear three stamens, and their mostly white bristles elongate in May and June.

Flowering: mid-July to mid-August

Habitat and ecology: Rare in the Chicago Region. Found in bogs.

Occurence in the Chicago region: native

Etymology: Eriophorum means "bearing cotton," from the Greek words erion (cotton or wool) and phoros (bearing). Virginicum means "of or from Virginia."

Author: The Morton Arboretum

Stems stiff, erect, to 1 m, smooth or scabrous only at the summit, solitary or few together from a freely rooting base, the plant also with more slender, spreading rhizomes; blades flat, elongate, 2-4 mm wide; foliaceous bracts 2(3), unequal, much exceeding the infl; spikelets several, on short subequal pedicels, forming a crowded cluster; scales relatively thick and firm, coppery or brown, obtuse or acute, prominently 3-7-nerved; bristles tawny or coppery, seldom white; anthers 1-1.5 mm; achene 3-3.5 mm, a third as wide; 2n=58. Swamps and bogs; abundant; Nf. and Que. to Man. and Minn., s. to Fla. and Ky. Fr Aug.-Oct.

Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

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