Cotton Grass Eriophorum virginicum

This unique sedge, with flowers that look a bit like a shaving brush, is a perennial. It grows in bogs, wet meadows, and many other places with sun and damp or wet soil. It is one of many cottongrass (common name) cultivars with a flower that has a white to tan bristly appearing but soft, cotton like mass 1 to 2 inches across. Many cottongrass blooms are white but this one is often tawny (light brown) in color, hence one of its common names of Tawny cottongrass.  It blooms from June to September. The flowers are perfect, meaning both male and female parts are present. 

The lowest 2 to 5 spikes of flowers each have a leaf-like bract (part between flower and stem) at the base of the stalk, of varying lengths, up to 5 or 6 inches long, and may be upward or downward pointing.  

The leaves are flat, grasslike and few in number, alternating on the stem.  The leaves are simple, meaning that each is a single leaf attached to a stem or twig. This leaf is smooth and hairless.

The sedge is densely clump forming and grows from spreading rhizomes under the soil. It is not common in NC but is native, in general, throughout the eastern half of the U.S. It is more commonly found in northern cooler states.