1.
Eriophorum
virginicum
Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 1: 52. 1753.
Tawny cotton-grass, linaigrette de Virginie
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.
