Western Wetland Flora
Field Office Guide to Plant Species
Eriophorum scheuchzeri Hoppe
- Family: Sedge (Cyperaceae)
- Flowering: July-August
- Field Marks: The field marks of this cotton-grass are its short stature, its single spikelet at the tip of the stem, its blackish green scales, and its white bristles that subtend the achene.
- Habitat: Bogs, fens.
- Habit: Perennial herb with creeping rhizomes, often forming dense colonies.
- Stems: Upright, unbranched, up to 8 inches tall, smooth.
- Leaves: Very few, mostly near the base of the plant, channeled and triangular, smooth, only about 1/20 inch wide.
- Flowers: Crowded together into a single terminal spikelet, up to 1 inch long; scales narrowly lanceolate, usually blackish green, tapering to a slender point.
- Sepals: 0.
- Petals: 0.
- Stamens: Usually 3.
- Pistils: Ovary superior; styles 3-parted.
- Fruits: Achenes triangular, oblanceoloid, about 1/10 inch long, subtended by white bristles.
- Notes: The achenes may be eaten by waterfowl.
Previous Species -- Slender Cotton-grass (Eriophorum gracile)
Return to Species List -- Group 3
Next Species -- Tufted Bulrush (Scirpus cespitosus )
