Wool Grass, Scirpus cyperinus

Wool Grass, Scirpus cyperinus, is a herbaceous wetland plant that is native to the eastern United States and eastern Canada. Other common names include cottongrass, bulrush and brown woolly sedge. It produces short, tough rhizomes and grows in dense clumps with upright stems and five to ten thin, drooping leaves per stem. In spring the flowers have upright or spreading branches bearing with up to 15 greenish spikelets. In late July and September the Wool Grass fruit is brown or rusty colored, heavily drooping with bristly scales giving it a woolly appearance. Native Americans used this plant for a number of purposes and it is an excellent food source for deer.