Vaginal cotton grass (Eriophorum vaginatum L.). Cotton grass vaginal: description Slim cotton grass

One of the earliest plants in the tundra is cotton grass. Spectacular large tussock-shaped tufts, bright greenery and unusual fluffy inflorescences attract attention and look very interesting. The plant is valued not only as fodder, but also as a valuable peat former, and is also actively used in garden and park design.

Cotton grass vaginal: distribution

This species, belonging to the genus Pushitz, has a very extensive range, which includes regions of North America, Eurasia with a cold and temperate climate. The northern limit of distribution reaches Novaya Zemlya. In Russia, it grows almost everywhere, including in the middle lane. The most characteristic habitat of the plant is sphagnum and sphagnum-sedge bogs, predominantly high, that is, fed by precipitation. This is the main factor by which the vaginal cottongrass differs from related species (narrow-leaved and broad-leaved). The latter prefer key and lowland swamps.

In addition, the species actively spreads along overgrown lake shores, in swampy coniferous forests, usually pine forests, and also in moss tundras. High growth rate and resistance to environmental factors make it possible to form thickets and extensive tussocks in a short time.

Roots, stems, leaves

All representatives of the genus Pushitsa are perennial herbs with a height of 30 to 70 cm, less often 90 cm. In the process of growth, they form large and dense sods or tussocks. The considered species, unlike others, has a shortened rhizome with uriculate branched roots, and not a creeping one. The stem of the plant is erect.

The vaginal cotton grass got its name due to the presence of a special part of the leaf, located at the very base. It is expanded in the form of a tube or groove and covers a stem up to 12 cm long (pictured above). In the harsh northern climate, it protects the lower basal trihedral leaves from frost. Stem sheaths can be red-brown, pink-brown, sometimes with a yellowish tint, the edges are fibrous.

Flowers and fruits

Bisexual flowers are collected in a single multi-flowered spikelet located at the top of the shoot. A striking feature of the plant genus is the presence of a perianth of soft and smooth bristles (hairs), most often white. It is this trait that determined the name of the entire genus of plants.

After the vaginal cotton grass (see photo in the article) fades, the hairs increase greatly, exceeding the fruit many times in length, and form a fluffy “cap”, or the so-called ovoid or spherical puff with a diameter of up to 3-4 cm. Their biological significance is in adaptation to anemochory, that is, the spread of seeds with the help of wind, as well as the ability to gain a foothold on wet ground due to its high hygroscopicity.

The fruit is nuts of an oblong trihedral shape, brown, and sometimes with a yellow tint, dimensions - up to 3 mm in length and 1.3-1.5 mm in width. Flowering periods depend on the place of growth, in Russia - April-May.

Vaginal cotton grass: meaning

All representatives of the genus are active peat-formers, some species are especially valuable because they make up the bulk of the peat, known as "cotton peat". Previously, powder puffs were used to stuff pillows, create wicks, hats, tinder, an admixture to sheep wool, cotton or linen, silk fabrics and in paper production.

Due to its vast habitat, cotton grass is an important fodder plant, one of the first to appear in spring in natural areas with poor vegetation (sphagnum and transitional bogs, tundra, swampy deciduous forests). One centner of grass contains 25.2 feed units and a significant amount of digestible protein (3 kg). The plant is the main component of the year-round diet of reindeer, which even in winter dig it out from under the snow cover. In spring, moose and lemmings, waterfowl feed on it.

Use in traditional medicine

The plant is not recognized as a medicinal plant by official medicine. However, in folk therapies, it is used as a diuretic and anti-inflammatory agent. Science has not established contraindications as such, the plant is not poisonous. However, like any other medicine, it should be used with caution, observing the dosage.

The chemical composition of the vaginal cottongrass has not been fully studied. It is known that the epidermis of stems and leaves is impregnated, which explains their rigidity. The rhizome contains an essential oil. In general, the plant is rich in protein, sugars, trace elements and vitamins.

Cotton grass vaginal has diuretic, anti-inflammatory, analgesic, sedative properties, has a positive effect on the functioning of the gastrointestinal tract, relieves irritability, and helps to flush out uric acid salts from the body. Plant grass is used to prepare infusion, decoction, steam, spikelets - for brewing.

Use as an ornamental plant

In landscape gardening, plants are used very actively, including vaginal cottongrass. The description of the plant would be incomplete without mentioning its use as an ornamental. Large and dense sods of bright green color look bright and interesting, the effect is doubled with the appearance of numerous snow-white "puffs".

Since the plant is a typical inhabitant of waterlogged water meadows, swampy forests, then the place on the site must be chosen accordingly. It is best to plant cotton grass in shallow water, along the edges of a pond, artificial reservoir or swamp. In this case, the lighting should be full, only light shading is permissible. The plant prefers acidic water and soil (silty, with the addition of peat).

The main care for vaginal cottongrass in the garden will be to maintain the required level of soil moisture, which should not dry out. Withered inflorescences are recommended to be removed in early spring, as the seeds stay on the plants for a long time - this is the growth of sod. Representatives of the Sedge family are prone to rapid and uncontrolled growth.

Use cottongrass when decorating rockeries, heather gardens, banks of water bodies, planting it in groups or small arrays. Faded inflorescences look beautiful when making bouquets of fresh flowers or

The name of the genus of cotton grass- eryophorum - comes from the Greek "eriophoros" - "carrying fluff." There are 20 known species of this plant, common in temperate and cold regions of the northern hemisphere, and 1 species in South Africa; 12 species grow in Russia. Cotton wool during the fruiting period is very decorative due to pure white or bright red puffs. Some species are used in folk medicine. These are Scheitscher's cottongrass, vaginal, multi-spikelet (narrow-leaved), broad-leaved.

Cotton grass vaginal is a perennial herbaceous plant typical of peat bogs. The root system of cotton grass is fibrous, from many thin cord-like roots. Growing, the roots form bumps. Its numerous shoots - vegetative and flower-bearing - are located tightly to each other. Such plants are called densely sod. Cotton grass hibernates with green leaves of shortened vegetative shoots. Their plates are narrow, trihedral. Blooms in early spring, flowering spikelets are yellow. The fruit-bearing spikelets are broadly obovate;

Growth area- tundra and taiga zones of the entire Northern Hemisphere. Grows in sphagnum and sedge-sphagnum bogs, marshy forests, overgrown lake shores, moss peaty tundras.

In folk medicine, a decoction of herbs with fruits is used as an analgesic, sedative and anticonvulsant, for diseases and disorders of the digestive tract, for diarrhea, and also for arthritis. Cotton grass is a valuable early spring food for reindeer and elk. As early as the beginning of the 20th century, cotton powder puffs were used in paper production, as an admixture to sheep wool, cotton, and silk. Cotton grass vaginal and some other types of cotton grass play an important role in peat-forming processes, making up the bulk of the so-called cotton grass peat.

Cotton grass vaginal

Vaginal cottongrass (Eriophorum vaginatum)

Perennial herbaceous plant forming tussocks; species of the genus Pushitsa (Eriophorum) of the sedge family (Cyperaceae), type species of this genus.Peat former.

Cotton grass vaginal

Plants height from 30 (rarely from 20) to 70 cm (sometimes up to 90 cm). Form tussocks or dense turfs Blooms in summer (July-August).

The rhizomes of the vaginal cotton grass are not creeping (unlike many other species of this genus), shortened. Roots branched, uriculate, short.

The perianth consists of smooth and soft hairs (bristles) that are usually pure white in color but are sometimes cream-colored. After flowering, the hairs are greatly elongated, many times exceeding the length of the fruit, and form a thick fluffy head - the so-called "puff".

Cotton grass vaginal

Spikelets during flowering are oblong, sometimes ovate or broadly ovate; 1.5 to 2.5 cm long (sometimes up to 3 cm). The puff is spherical or broadly ovoid, with a diameter up to 3-4 cm. In the conditions of the Russian middle zone, the plant blooms in April-May.

The plant is not particularly demanding, however, it has a number of preferences, subject to which it develops especially quickly:

Lighting for cotton grass plays a rather significant role, although Pushchitsa vaginalis puts up with partial shade. She feels best in a well-lit and open area, preferably closer to the water. Therefore, it is best to plant cotton grass near water bodies, where it will feel the best.

Cotton grass vaginal

Cotton grass is often referred to as a frost-resistant plant and there are a number of reasons for this, as it is able to survive quite severe frosts. This property of cotton grass is especially relevant for our area, since there is no need to specially prepare it for the winter, cover it or take any other measures.

The plant is quite demanding on moisture, so in no case should you allow the soil on which it grows to dry out. Regular and moderate watering is the key to success in growing cotton grass. Particular attention should be paid to the growing season of this plant, since at this moment watering is required especially plentiful.

Cotton grass vaginal

Like many other marsh plants, cottongrass prefers soil with lots of organic matter. Therefore, periodically the soil on which this plant grows should be supplied with special organic fertilizers.

The best option for transplanting cotton grass is acidic soil with a high peat content. After transplanting the plant, it is necessary to carry out mulched soils, it is best to use peat for this.

Or for Pushitsa, you need to make soil in two layers, the first layer should be loamy well-drained soil, and peat can be used on the second layer with the addition of sand.

Cotton grass vaginal

It should be taken into account that all marsh plants, including Pushitsa, need a lot of air and nutrients. Pushitsa is fed mainly with organic fertilizers. The fluff that Pushitz sheds over time can also serve as some fertilizer for the plant itself.

Special conditions for success are acidic soil in which water (peat, sand or clay) stagnates, flooding of the site up to 5 cm and bright sun. Cotton grass grows best on the open south side of the pond.

The planting depth of cottongrass is usually not very large and is approximately 5-10 cm. During the transplantation process, it is not worth keeping the roots of the plant in the open air for a long time, this can have an extremely negative effect on the plant. In the event that you have no other choice, and you need to hold the cotton grass for a certain period of time, it is best to lower its roots into the water.

Cotton grass vaginal

Cotton grass has found quite wide application in landscape design, most often it is used to decorate reservoirs, as it looks great in this role and is able to fit perfectly into almost any landscape composition.

Use cotton grass when decorating rockeries, heather garden, planting it in groups or small arrays. Faded inflorescences look beautiful when making bouquets of fresh flowers or compositions of dried flowers.

Landing: Cotton grass can be propagated both by seeds and vegetatively.

The most favorable period for breeding is spring.

Seeds are sown immediately in open ground, if the air temperature does not fall below 15C for several weeks, then within two to six weeks, the first shoots will appear.

Pushitsa (Eriophorum)- herbaceous ornamental perennial marsh plant. Pushitz belongs to the Sedge family. There are about twenty types of Pushitsa.

The root of Pushitsa is creeping or shortened, reaching thirty cm in length. The stem is erect, covered with foliage, can reach forty cm in length. The leaves of Pushitsa are tubular, linear, flat, bright green in color.

On the peduncles there are spikelets in the amount of three to seven pieces. Flowers spherical or oval, bisexual. Numerous flowers. After the plant sheds its color, a fluffy head of white or orange is formed on the peduncles.

The fruit of Pushitsa is a small trihedral dark brown nut. Basically, Pushitsa is used to decorate bouquets and planted in the garden to decorate ponds and ponds. Cotton grass is a nutritious and complete food for deer and elk.

Pushitsa - care:

Lighting:

Cotton grass prefers well-lit open places. Ideal if you plant Pushitsa near a pond or pond in your garden. Some types of Cottonseed can grow in partial shade. However, they mostly require regular sunlight.

Temperature:

Cotton grass belongs to frost-resistant plants. Since Pushitsa is most common in marshy and wetlands, the plant does not grow or bloom in warmer regions. It is not necessary to cover and warm the plant for the winter.

Watering:

Water Pushitsa regularly and moderately. The soil must not be allowed to dry out. Special care for the plant should be given during the growing season, watering at this time should be plentiful.

Humidity:

Cotton grass is a moisture-loving plant, which is why it can most often be found in marshy meadows and wetlands of the forest.

Top dressing:

For Pushitsa, you need to make soil in two layers, the first layer should be loamy well-drained soil, and peat can be used on the second layer with the addition of sand. It should be taken into account that all marsh plants, including Pushitsa, need a lot of air and nutrients. Pushitsa is fed mainly with organic fertilizers. The fluff that Pushitz sheds over time can also serve as some fertilizer for the plant itself.

Transfer:

For Pushitsa, acidic soil with a high content of peat and silt is initially selected. After you transplanted Pushitsa, you need to mulch the soil around the plant. It will be good if you take peat as mulch. This plant is planted not deep, about five to ten cm deep. Like all marsh plants, Pushitsa is not recommended to be kept outdoors for a long time so that the roots do not dry out. If such a need arose, then you can put the roots of Pushitsa in some water, so you can save the plant until planting in the ground.

Reproduction:

Cotton grass reproduces by seeds and vegetatively (by dividing the bush). The breeding process is carried out mainly in the spring. Seeds should be sown immediately in open ground. If the temperature is not below fifteen degrees, then for two to six weeks, the first shoots will appear.

Some features:

Cotton grass does not propagate by self-sowing, since the seeds do not fall out and hold on for a long time. Therefore, inflorescences with seeds are harvested in the spring, cutting them off. If the aerial part dies in winter, it should be cut off. If the puffballs that form on the peduncles have lost their decorative effect, they should be cut off. Cottonseed root usually grows very quickly, so its growth should be controlled.

Cotton grass - diseases and pests:

In order for the plant not to be affected by diseases, it can be planted in containers, which are then placed on the garden plot. This will also allow Pushitz not to grow, which is very typical for this plant. This plant is resistant to pests.

No matter how freely around in summer, the swampy meadow looks unattractive, meager. Not to say that there is no originality in it, it is, of course, but inaccessible to a cursory glance. Sedges, susak, chastukha and sometimes cattails seem monotonous, everyday. But then the white thickets of cotton grass flashed by, and the wet meadow was transformed, brightened from all sides. The dull appearance smoothed out, revealing living white spots. And it seems as if you are walking not through hollows, but through a cotton field: there are so many pieces of cotton wool hung on the stems here.
Only cotton wool of a special kind. It consists of smooth, straight bristles collected in a long brush. When the plant bloomed, the bristles of the perianth were small, inconspicuous, but now it was about to bear fruit, and each white thread stretched out into a long fluff. For this feature, the genus of cotton grass received the Greek name Eriophorum, which means "fluff-bearing". The swamp grass bloomed in the midst of spring, but it appeared fluffy in the summer grace. With the help of fluffs, the smallest seeds will fly into the air. The wind will carry the new cottongrass embryos over long distances, and the moisture-loving grass will go, go to settle.
Once upon a time this fluff was collected. Puffs were stuffed into pillows and mattresses. The cotton grass of the peasants also helped out when making fire, when there were no matches in wide use. Armchair, flint and a wick made of tinder or cotton grass - that's all the simple equipment of a flint and flint. A sharp spark will fall into the fluffs rolled up with a bundle, and a light has already smoldered, you can blow it up. In manufactory production, cotton grass was mixed into paper pulp, as well as to wool in the production of cloth, to cotton and silk in the manufacture of fabrics. And the surrogate did not spoil the product, did not worsen its valuable properties. Even in the hat business, cotton grass was used - the felt turned out to be even more beautiful and wearable.
These representatives of the sedge family are eaten by cattle very little even in spring. Hay mixed with cotton grass belongs to the category of sour, and foragers usually discount it as a secondary one. And only reindeer herders are infinitely grateful to the fluffy grass. After the snow melts, the tundra feeds the deer mainly on cotton grass. Even under the snow, the plant begins to push out its green leaves, and as soon as the meager land is exposed, endless pastures for fattening open up before the deer. And they eat not only green leaves, but also last year's, withered, and even roots. The rhizome of the cotton grass is powerful, bulging out in a tussock. And the nutritional composition of cotton grass is not so poor: 100 kilograms of grass contains 25 feed units and 3 kilograms of digestible protein. The deer digests the dry matter of this plant by 75 percent and approximately the same amount of protein contained in it.
Good cottongrass thickets develop in sphagnum and transitional bogs and in swampy deciduous forests. By the way, deer feed on fluffy grass not only in spring, but also in summer, when forbs and shrubs, of course, reduce its role, and in winter, getting cotton grass out from under the snow. In winter, this is a very significant addition to moss fodder. Then the deer prefers to eat the green bases of the leaves from the cotton grass. And wild geese do not ignore cotton grass, and for lemmings it is an indispensable and, I would say, invariable food.
The importance of cottongrass in the accumulation of peat is great. Cottongrass peat is perfumed - they give a lot of heat, the air warmed by it is light, not carbon monoxide. This peat is fibrous, and, what is very important, cotton grass fibers, having lain for millennia, acquired spinning properties. Extracted from peat, they can be used in pure form or as an admixture to wool and cotton in the manufacture of carpets, paths, various bedspreads and blankets, for peat wool. Cottonseed fiber is also quite suitable for paper production.
Pushitsy-plants are very common. In the European part of the country, we have them everywhere, except perhaps the Black Sea, the Lower Don. Lower Volga and Crimea. And there are not so few species - 12. All of them are perennial herbs, in which the basal leaves are always longer than the stem ones. Often form dense tufts - bumps. Especially large bumps generates vaginal cottongrass E. vaqinatum- the most characteristic of domestic cotton grasses. It is from 30 to 90 centimeters tall, its fibrous roots are short, branched. The stems stick out straight, as do the leaves with them. The bases of the leaves are hidden in a scaly clutch so that they do not freeze out in the fierce cold. The leaves themselves are trihedral and very thin, like threads. The fluffy brush is nothing more than soft white bristles of the perianth.
There are many vaginal cotton grasses in moss swamps, whether in the forest zone, in the tundra or in the Caucasus. It is exceptionally winter-hardy, since the live bundles of leaves are insulated and are not damaged by frost. As deer fodder, it is highly valued by polar pastoralists. Nirgakta is the Evenki name for this cotton grass. Evenki believe that it helps deer get rid of the nasal gadfly.
With wider leaves, but shorter in stature broad-leaved cottongrass (E. latifolum). Its stem is obtusely trihedral, well leafy. The leaves are slightly rough, with a pointed tip; a small keel is felt on the underside of the plate. A feature of the white bristles is the branched tip. The fruits are brown, triangular, small.
And here is another type of this plant - cotton grass narrow-leaved (E. anqustifolium). On each stem, she has not one, but several fluffy spikelets. The tips of the fluffs are unbranched. The leaves are linear, die off in autumn, and only shoots tightly pressed against the bush overwinter. They also contain the beginnings of leaves. Narrow-leaved cotton grass is widely distributed. It will certainly come across in moss and sedge swamps, in a swampy water meadow and in a damp coniferous forest. Tundra, forest zone, forest-steppe - this is where its habitats extend. Narrow-leaved cotton grass is not eaten by cattle or horses - it is poisonous, it causes. And only deer look for narrow-leaved cotton grass as food. The tastiest part of it is the rhizome, and deer choose them from mouse holes or dig them out of the soil. Shoots of this cotton grass are also eaten by geese and lemmings.
That's all that could be briefly told about cotton grasses, plants very noticeable on swampy peat bogs and damp meadows. Take a good look at them.

The cotton grass is multi-coloured. General view of a flowering plant, inflorescence during the fruiting period (with powder puffs), a spikelet flower during the flowering period and a fruit with elongated perianth hairs.

According to the materials of the journal "Science and Life" No. 09 for 1979