cotton grass

American  

noun

1. any rushlike plant constituting the genus Eriophorum, of the sedge family, common in swampy places and bearing spikes resembling tufts of cotton.

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cotton grass British  

noun

1. Also called: bog cotton.  any of various N temperate and arctic grasslike bog plants of the cyperaceous genus Eriophorum, whose clusters of long silky hairs resemble cotton tufts

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Etymology

Origin of cotton grass

First recorded in 1590–1600; so called from its cottonlike heads