Eriophorum

• Authority

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

• Family

  Cyperaceae

• Scientific Name

  Eriophorum

• Description

  Genus Description - Scales spirally arranged, scarious, not awned; fls perfect, each in the axil of a scale; perianth of numerous (more than 10) persistent bristles, these much elongate at maturity, so that the mature spikelet forms a dense, cottony tuft commonly 2–4 cm; stamens 1–3; style trifid, deciduous; achene unequally trigonous, often with a short, slender stylar apiculus; perennial herbs of wet places, with grass-like lvs, the upper sheaths often bladeless; spikelets many-fld, solitary and terminal or few–many in an umbelliform cyme or head-like cluster; foliaceous bracts present in spp. with more than 1 spikelet. 20, N. Hemisphere.

• Common Names

  cotton-grass