Funny how things sometimes just come back to you like from out of nowhere. Last time my brother and I were visiting our dad, we went for a walk down by the lake. One of the paths we took was one I remember walking often with my paternal grandmother back in my childhood and teens. She used to tell me the names of wild flowers that we passed, and sometimes now I find names popping up in my head that I didn’t even know that I knew. Like with these white woolly things: Ängsull. The direct translation of the Swedish name into English would be meadow-wool. But I find when looking it up now that the English name is Cottongrass. Latin: Eriophorum angustifolium. These usually grow on boggy ground, so serve to warn you that you might get your feet wet if you proceed in that direction… That, too, I remembered – so had to settle for taking my photos from some distance… ;)
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5 comments:
I like both names, meadow wool and cottong grass. it does look like our cotton that grows here in the south and it also looks like wool. so either one is good. i enjoy it when you tell us all the names and in each lanquage.
Yipes, how odd and strange!! It looks like that grass needs a good vacuming!! does this have any practical uses?
Dawn Treader...I learned something today! I have never seen cotton grass but it is an appropriate name for it.
I know what you mean by things spurring memories. I often have that happen as well and it often triggers a photograph for me.
Hope yo are having a great Summer up there and if you start getting to hot...just remember last winter!
Dan
I think that's what I'm used to calling Bog Cotton. There's masses of it around on the Island at the moment. Appropriate I suppose given that a huge proportion of the Island is boggy!
I did a bit more research on this and found a Swedish essay on the internet which mentions the following uses for the plant:
*Strands from the "cotton" balls were mixed together with wool from sheeps to spin yarn.
*They were also used by poor people to fill pillows and mattresses.
*The plant is edible, the roots as well as the young leaves.
*The plant is also eaten by raindeer all year round.
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