In the thick of it with bog cotton

THERE’s a road I travel fairly frequently that crosses an area of cutaway bog.

For the past six weeks or so it’s been like driving through a snow-field. The flowers of bog cotton have been so dense the land on both sides of the road has turned pure white. The other day I stopped the car to investigate a bit further.

The botanists prefer to call it cottongrass, not bog cotton, and four species grow in Ireland, though only two are common on bogs. They are common cottongrass and hare’s tail cottongrass. When they’re in flower they’re easy to tell apart. Common cottongrass has many cotton-like flower heads on a single stalk while the other species has a single tuft, like the tail of a hare. The one I had seen turned out to be hare’s tail cottongrass.