Cottongrass

No, it's not snow, but from a distance it just might fool you.  This was early one morning last week, and, as always, my photo just doesn't do it justice.  One of the first plants to flower when the snow melts is cottongrass.  It's not actually a grass but a sedge -- if that matters to you at all -- but you can see why it's called "cotton."  It's a very common tundra plant, and you tend to find it where the tundra is "tussocky."

Notice how the cottongrass looks like it's growing out of a mound?  Well, it is.  That mound is called a tussock.  The tundra's like a sponge.  Water in the soil can't drain down very far because it hits ice, and the soil's also full of organic material that holds on to the water.  During the summer it can be mushy and even feel like you're walking on a sponge.  When the water freezes in winter, it expands and wedges apart pieces of soil.  In spring when the ice thaws, water trickles into the cracks, eroding them more.  This goes on and on.  Over time, tussocks form because the roots of grasses and sedges hold the soil in place while ice and water form some fairly deep troughs all around them.

Take another look at that first photo.  Does it look like a nice walk through a flat, open prairie?  Think again!  Walking through tussock tundra can be exhausting!  You can either keep your feet in the troughs where it might be softer, wetter with knee high tussocks to clamber over, or you can try to step from tussock to tussock where it's dry and seemingly effortless.  However, the tussocks are just narrow columns of soil held in place by roots, so as you step on them, they wobble.  Frankly, I don't know how the caribou migrate so many miles across the tundra without breaking their skinny legs!

Here's a poem I came across a while back about cottongrass (scientific name = Eriophorum vaginatum).  (It references climate change and the fact that as the tundra dries, shrubs establish themselves where they couldn't before and begin to choke out plants like cottongrass.)

Ode to Eriophorum Vaginatum
By Benjamin Shaw

Walking over Eriophorum,
Watch your step or you’ll fall off ‘em.

Hiking through the Arctic tundra,
Tussocks make me stop to wonder.

How does this sedge survive the snow,
The fire too and yet still grow?

The puff-ball stalks sway in the breeze
And look like real-life Truffula Trees.

Now, should I step upon the mound
Or simply try to go around?

The tundra’s boggy, low and wet
So that dry tuft could help me yet.

But one wrong move could cause a sprain
And aggravate my ankle pain.

A sedge encounter yesterday
Already has me in dismay.

Now if the Arctic grows too warm
The vegetation will transform.

No longer would these tussocks thrive.
Willows and birches would arrive.

And though I curse the path today
And know flat ground would ease my way,

I’d miss that plant if it did stray.
I hope E. Vag is here to stay.

Cottongrass is a fairly iconic tundra plant.  The kids don't usually know many of the plants around here, but they all know cottongrass.  It's just one of those fun, cool-looking plants like dandelions or something.  I had forgotten the poem referenced truffula trees.  That's what I always think of, too.  Truffula trees are the subject of The Lorax, by Dr. Seuss.  Fitting reference in that poem as well since it's a story about conservation.