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Eriophorum angustifolium
Cotton like plumes sticking out of the bog. In the wild, Eriophorum angustifolium is a creeping rhizomatous perennial sedge, with an abundance of unbranched, translucent pink roots. Fully grown, it has a tall, erect stem shaped like a narrow cylinder or triangular prism; it is smooth in texture and green in colour. Reports of the plant's height vary; estimates include up to 60 cm, 15–75 cm, and up to 100 cm. E. angustifolium has "stiff grass-like foliage" consisting of long, narrow solidly dark green leaves, which have a single central groove, and narrow from their 2–6-millimetre wide base to a triangular tip. Up to seven green and brown aerial peduncles and chaffs, roughly 4–10 millimetres in size, protrude from umbels at the top of the stem from which achenes are produced after fertilisation, each with a single pappus; these combine to form a distinctive white perianth around 5 centimetres long.
In the bog near coast and sea. Sheepshead Peninsula, County Cork, South West Ireland.
I have always loved these little plumes sticking out of the gras. Thanks to Project Noah I now tok the effort to learn something about them.
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