Eriophorum gracile Slender Cottongrass

A rare, perennial, rhizomatous sedge which grows in very wet peaty areas such as poor fen, wet areas of valley bogs, which are not very acidic and may have a slight calcareous or base-rich nature. It resembles Common Cottongrass (Eriophorum angustifolium) but it is smaller, with narrower leaves (0.5-2mm wide) and the spikelet stalks have forward-pointing bristles. It is a UK (and Wales) Red species which has beeen lost from many of its former sites in Briatin and Ireland. and it is on the rare plant register of those vice counties where it still survives (including Glamorgan, VC41). It was first discovered in Glamorgan in Crymlyn Fen by Andrew Lees in 1977 and then in Pant y Saes Fen in 1990 by CH.  Later, another population was discovered by George Hutchinson on Kilvay Hill.

Native