Common Cottongrass is a distinctive bog and tundra sedge that produces showy white, cotton-ball-like tufts of cottony white bristles in spring and early summer — one of the most characteristic sights of northern bogs and Arctic tundra. Found across the boreal zone and Arctic from Alaska to Greenland and south in the Appalachians, it grows in dense stands in waterlogged, acidic peat. The cottony tufts were used by Indigenous peoples for stuffing and wicks for oil lamps. It is not a grass despite the common name.
Habitat
Found in acidic sphagnum bogs, fens, and moist tundra across northern North America and the Arctic.
Diet
Seeds consumed by waterfowl and Arctic-breeding birds; provides nesting material for snipe and other wetland birds.
How common
Common
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