Eriophorum angustifolium subsp. angustifolium Honck.
Cyperaceae, sedge family.
Verz. Gew. Deutschl. 153. 1782
Eriophorum polystachion L., nom. rejic., Sp. Pl. 52. 1753.
Eriophorum angustifolium Honck. subsp. subarcticum
(V.N.Vassil.) Hultén ex Kartesz & S.K.Gandhi, Phytologia 72,1: 22.
1992
Vegetative morphology. Plants perennial herbs; (7–)15–30(–40) cm high; not caespitose; colonial from long creeping rhizomes with single unbranched culms that have 2–5(-10) flowering heads. Roots colourless, or pallid-brown. Ground-level or under-ground stems horizontal (often missing from herbarium specimens); rhizomatous; elongate. Scales present (on horizontal stems). Aerial stems erect; not conspicuously jointed; not filiform (0.5–2.0 mm in diameter); circular or oval in cross-section, or triangular in cross-section (at the apex); glabrous. Leaves distributed along the stems (in the lower half); alternate. Petioles absent. Sheaths persisting; not forming a conspicuous build up at the base of the plant; greyish brown, or brown (pallid orange); with the margins fused to the apex; glabrous; collars absent (more or less inflated). Ligules present; 0.5–1 mm long; membranous (often turning brown at the apex), or a fringed membrane (seen at 40 X); glabrous; transversely oblong; apices obtuse; entire. Blades 50–250(–400) mm long; 0.8–4(–8) mm wide. Blades spreading; straight; linear (distal leaf bladeless or with a short blade that forms an angle with the sheath); flat, or caniculate (tip trigonous); veins parallel; midvein conspicuously larger than the lateral veins. Blades adaxial surface glabrous. Blades abaxial surface glabrous. Blade margins glabrous (usually, sometimes scaberulous towards the tip). Leaf apices acuminate (trigonaous).
Reproductive morphology. Flowering stems present. Flowering stems conspicuously taller than the leaves; with leaves; uppermost leaf arising above the middle of the stem (sheath cylindrical; the leaf blade much longer than the sheath); glabrous. Flowering culm nodes not exposed. Leaf or reduced bract closely associated with the base of the inflorescence present; conspicuous and leaf-like, or reduced, or scale-like; shorter than the apex of the inflorescence (usually); 5–45 mm long; with sheath shorter than the blade; persistent. Inflorescence spicate; dense; ovate; 2–6(–12) cm long (each spike 1–2 cm in flower; 2–5 cm long in fruit); 20–60 mm wide. Pedicels present (5–10 cm long and drooping); glabrous, or scabrous (or the angles). Pedicels bract leaves 5–60 mm long (120). Inflorescence multispicate; (1–)2–5(–10) spikes (in sub-umbels, ovoid at maturity 10–20 mm long in flower; 20–50 mm long in fruit); lateral spikes borne on pedicels (subtended by 1–3 bracts). Individual spike(s) erect, or pendent (at maturity). Bisexual spike(s) with empty bracts at the base (including blade-bearing involucral bracts). Terminal spike with both sexes in each floret. Involucral bracts present (1–3 bracts with blades that are often black). Floral scales black, or pale grey (to greenish gray or reddish with white-hyaline margins; translucent; the single vein often not reaching to the tip of the scale); with margins paler than body of scale; acute; ovate; 4–7(–10) mm long (with a prominent midrib fading proimallyt owards the tip; apex more or less acute, prominal scales without lateral ribs); 1.5–2.5 mm wide; glabrous. Perianth represented by bristles (10 or more per flower,white or pale yellow, brown, 15–30 mm long, smooth); bristles dull white or yellowish (40–50 mm long). Stamens 3. Anthers (2.5–)3–4(–5) mm long. Carpels syncarpous. Stipes 3 mm long. Styles 3. Placentation basal. Fruit surrounded by a perianth persisting as bristles; an achene; ovoid, or obovate, or oblong (oblanceoloid). Fruit (2.5–)2.8–3.5 mm long; black, or brown. Achenes trigonous (oblanceoloid; oblong-obovoid or oblong-elliptical).
Chromosome information. 2n = 54&58&60. 54. -
Stoeva (1985, 1992b south-eastern Europe).
58. - Håkansson
(1928 northernorthern Europe); Sørensen and Westergaard in Löve and
Löve (1948 Greenland?); Löve and Löve (1956b Iceland, 1981c
central and northern Canada); Jørgensen et al. (1958 Greenland); Sorsa
(1963c Finland, 2n = c.58); Löve and Ritchie (1966 northern Canada);
Johnson and Packer (1968 northwestern Alaska ); Zhukova (1968 north eastern
Asia); Zhukova and Tikhonova (1971 Chuk); Packer and McPherson (1974 northern
Alaska); Krogulevich (1976 northern Siberia); Zhukova et al. (1977a north
eastern Asia); Yurtsev and Zhukova (1978 E Chuk); Zhukova (1980 S Chuk, 1982
north eastern Asia). Several more southern counts.
60. - Pojar (1973 western
Canada, given as 2n = 58 by Löve and Löve 1975).
Distribution. Northern hemisphere distribution: circumpolar; Greenland, Canada. Yukon, Northwest Territories Islands, Continental Northwest Territories, Nunavut Islands, Continental Nunavut, Northern Québec. Arctic. Range in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago widespread. Common. Arctic Islands: Baffin, Ellesmere, Axel Heiberg, and Parry Islands (Melville and Bathurst), Banks, Victoria, Prince of Wales, Somerset, King William, Southampton, and Coats (Prince Charles).
Ecology and habitat. Substrates: wet meadows, around the margins of ponds, marshes, river terraces, tundra; aquatic (emergent), or imperfectly drained moist areas, or on seepage slopes, or on solifluction slopes; circumneutral (or indifferent, or rather more scarce on limestone areas); sand, silt (often in fluvial materials), moss, gravel, rocks (bouldery rubble); with high organic content, or peat. Habitats: This species often forms pure stands in Carex / Salix wet meadows in areas grazed by musk oxen. A common associate is C. aquatilis var. stans. Most often reported along streams. It can be found in wet meadows with Carex fuliginosa subsp. misandra and Arctagrostis; it is also reported in moist ridged fens with Dryas and Cassiope. In mineral soils, often in open clay spots on the tundra and by the edge of ponds.
Indigenous knowledge. Inuit name kangoyak. The flowerheads were used as stuffing for mattresses and as tinder. The "cotton" was gathered for use as wicks for the kudlik or oil lamp. The "cotton" was arranged in a thin layer along the side of the lamp, with one end down in the seal or caribou fat. As the fat melts, it wicks up the strand of the cottongrass , and burns slowly. The woman tends the kudlik with a soapstone or wooden paddle, carefully pushing bits of fat up into the base of the flame, and keeping the "cotton" spread out thinly so it draws correctly.
Notes. A study of the effects of variable soil oxygen and nutrient
availability on E. angustifolium and E. vaginatum was done by
Gebauer et al. (1995) near Toolik Lake, Alaska. It was shown that growth in
E. angustifolium was improved by soil anoxia, and that biomass
allocatioNorth Americaong plant parts was not significantly affected, indicating
that the species is well adapted to flooded, wet habitat.
In a study of
scale-dependent correlation's of Arctic vegetation and snow cover in
south-eastern Victoria Island, Schaefer and Messier (1995) found that E.
angustifolium exhibited positive associations with various measures of snow
cover. It is thought that snow cover may reduce the rate of desiccation, protect
plants from abrasion, and insulate from low temperatures during the winter
season.
Photoinhibition occurs in plants when cold temperatures and high
light levels cause free radical formation and subsequent destruction of the
photosynthetic membranes. In his study of this phenomenon in high alpine
populations of E. angustifolium in Tirol, Austria, Lutz (1996) showed
that the species avoids this hazard by delaying the development of the
photosynthetic apparatus until favorable temperature conditions. Only etiolated
leaves are formed early in the season. When photosynthetic membranes do appear
they are protected by a set of carotenoids and antioxidants.
Ferland and
Rochefort (1997) report that E. angustifolium has a positive effect on
the survival of peat mosses during the restoration of ombotrophic peatlands at
Maisonnette, New Brunswick. It is easily transplanted and propagated, and is the
companion species that leads to the best recolonization of Sphagnum
diaspores.
The earliest name for this taxon is E. polystachion L.
Polunin (1940) gave three reasons for rejecting this name and that has since
been done Turland (1997).
Illustrations. • Plants in habitat. Cotton-grass meadow. Tuktoyaktuk, N.W.T near pingo, 20 July, 1981, J.M. Gillett 18694, CAN. • Close-up of plants. Plants with multispicate inflorescences. N.W.T., Tuktoyaktuk July 20, 1981, J.M. Gillett 18694, CAN. • Close-up of young inflorescence. Young inflorescence with three spikes showing and stigmas appearing before the anthers. N.W.T., Banks Island, Aulavik National Park, 8 July, 1999, Aiken 99–027. • Close-up of young inflorescence. Young inflorescence with three spikes showing and anthers just beginning to appear after stigmas have appeared. N.W.T., Banks Island, Aulavik National Park, 8 July, 1999, Aiken 99–027, CAN. • Close-up of young inflorescence. Young inflorescence with three or more spikes showing and anthers just beginning to appear. N.W.T., Banks Island, Aulavik National Park, 8 July, 1999, Aiken 99–027, CAN. • Close-up of inflorescence. Close-up of previous image. The "cotton" is composed of silky white perianth bristles. Tuktoyaktuk, N.W.T., July 20, 1981. J.M. Gillett 18694, CAN. • Close-up of leaf sheath. Close-up of side view of leaf sheaths showing a cylinder-like junction between the blade and the sheath. Collected Nunavut, Ellesmere Island, Tanquary Fiord. G.R. Brassard 3132a, 26 July, 1967. CAN 320200. • Close-up of leaf sheath. Close-up of front view of leaf sheath showing a cylinder-like junction between the blade and the sheath. Collected Nunavut, Ellesmere Island, Svedrdrup Pass, J.M. Gillett 18189, 17 July, 1979. CAN 453905. • Arctic Island distribution.
Cite this publication as: ‘S.G. Aiken, M.J. Dallwitz, L.L. Consaul, C.L. McJannet, L.J. Gillespie, R.L. Boles, G.W. Argus, J.M. Gillett, P.J. Scott, R. Elven, M.C. LeBlanc, A.K. Brysting and H. Solstad. 1999 onwards. Flora of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago: Descriptions, Illustrations, Identification, and Information Retrieval. Version: 29th April 2003. http://www.mun.ca/biology/delta/arcticf/’. Dallwitz (1980) and Dallwitz, Paine and Zurcher (1993, 1995, 2000) should also be cited (see References).
