top

Shiro TSUYUZAKI
Plant community ecology / Environmental conservation

Mount Usu / Sarobetsu post-mined peatland
From left: Crater basin in 1986 and 2006. Cottongrass / Daylily

(First update on May 25 2006. Last on December 11 2011)

Hare's-tail Cottongrass / Tussock cottongrass
Eriophorum vaginatum L. [Cyperaceae]

Watasuge (ワタスゲ, 綿菅 or スズメノケヤリ, 雀ノ毛槍)

Lifeform: perennial
Distribution: circumpolar
Habitat: wetland


Genus Eriophorum L.

Eriophorum: erion (Gr.) + forew (or phoreo) (Gr.) = 'wool' + 'to bring'
vaginatum: vagina (L.) = 'a covering, sheath'
ca 15 species in temperate and subarctic regions of the northern hemisphere

Three species in Japan

E. gracile Koch (サギスゲ)
E. vaginatum L. (ワタスゲ)
E. scheuchzeri Hoppe var. tenuifolium Ohwi (エゾワタスゲ)


Eriophorum vaginatum in interior Alaska

Alaska Alaska fruit4
[Left] A huge cottongrass community at 14 Mile Lake along Denali Highway on August 12 2010. [Center] An infloresence of cottongrass at Poker Flat, Faribanks, AK, on May 10 2006. This area was burned by the 2004 wildfire. [Right] a cottongrass tussock (谷地坊主) at Poker Flat on May 10 2006. [R/2nd] many flowering shoots on a tussock at Poker Flat on May 17 2005. (by JJ)


References

  • facilitation 定着促進効果
  • fire ecology 火災生態学
  • Koyama, A. & Tsuyuzaki, S. 2010. Effects of sedge and cottongrass tussocks on plant establishment patterns in a post-mined peatland, northern Japan. Wetlands Ecology and Management 18: 135-148

TOP