Eriophorum is a genus of about 25 species of flowering plant

Flowering plant

The flowering plants , also known as Angiospermae or Magnoliophyta, are the most diverse group of land plants. Angiosperms are seed-producing plants like the gymnosperms and can be distinguished from the gymnosperms by a series of synapomorphies...

s in the family Cyperaceae

Cyperaceae

Cyperaceae are a family of monocotyledonous graminoid flowering plants known as sedges, which superficially resemble grasses or rushes. The family is large, with some 5,500 species described in about 109 genera. These species are widely distributed, with the centers of diversity for the group...

, the Sedge family. They are found throughout the temperate Northern Hemisphere

Northern Hemisphere

The Northern Hemisphere is the half of a planet that is north of its equator—the word hemisphere literally means “half sphere”. It is also that half of the celestial sphere north of the celestial equator...

 in acid bog

Bog

A bog, quagmire or mire is a wetland that accumulates acidic peat, a deposit of dead plant material—often mosses or, in Arctic climates, lichens....

 habitats, being particularly abundant in Arctic

Arctic

The Arctic is a region located at the northern-most part of the Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean and parts of Canada, Russia, Greenland, the United States, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Iceland. The Arctic region consists of a vast, ice-covered ocean, surrounded by treeless permafrost...

 tundra

Tundra

In physical geography, tundra is a biome where the tree growth is hindered by low temperatures and short growing seasons. The term tundra comes through Russian тундра from the Kildin Sami word tūndâr "uplands," "treeless mountain tract." There are three types of tundra: Arctic tundra, alpine...

 regions.

They are herbaceous

Herbaceous

A herbaceous plant is a plant that has leaves and stems that die down at the end of the growing season to the soil level. They have no persistent woody stem above ground...

 perennial plant

Perennial plant

A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives for more than two years. The term is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter lived annuals and biennials. The term is sometimes misused by commercial gardeners or horticulturalists to describe only herbaceous perennials...

s with slender, grass-like leaves. The seed heads are covered in a fluffy mass of cotton which are carried on the wind to aid dispersal.

Selected species

• Eriophorum altaicum (Whitebristle Cottongrass)
• Eriophorum angustifolium (Common Cottongrass)
• Eriophorum brachyantherum (Northland Cottonsedge)
• Eriophorum callitrix
  Eriophorum callitrix
  Eriophorum callitrix, commonly known as Arctic cotton, Arctic cottongrass, or suputi in Inuktitut, is an Arctic plant in the Cyperaceae family. This plant is food for migrating snow geese and caribou. The Inuit used the seed heads as wicks in oil lamps. Clumps were placed into babies' pants and...
  
  (Arctic Cottongrass)
• Eriophorum chamissonis (Chamisso's Cottongrass)
• Eriophorum comosum
• Eriophorum crinigerum (Fringed Cottongrass)
• Eriophorum gracile
  Eriophorum gracile
  Eriophorum gracile is a species of flowering plant in the sedge family, Cyperaceae. It is known by the common name slender cottonsedge, or slender cottongrass. Eriophorum gracile is a plant with circumboreal distribution, extending south into mountain ranges of the Northern Hemisphere...
  
  (Slender Cottongrass)
• Eriophorum japonicum
• Eriophorum latifolium (Broad-leaved Cottongrass)
• Eriophorum microstachyum
• Eriophorum russeolum (Red Cottongrass)
• Eriophorum scheuchzeri (White Cottongrass)
• Eriophorum tenellum (Fewnerved Cottongrass)
• Eriophorum vaginatum
  Eriophorum vaginatum
  Eriophorum vaginatum L. is a species of perennial herbaceous plants in the family Cyperaceae, native to bogs and other acidic wetlands throughout the Holarctic Kingdom. It is a 30-60 cm high tussock-forming plant with erect solitary spikelets.-External links:* in Flora of North America*...
  
  (Hare's-tail Cottongrass)
• Eriophorum virginicum (Tawny Cottongrass)
• Eriophorum viridicarinatum (Thinleaf Cottongrass)

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