Country diary: Up close, cottongrass delivers on its promise

Flow Country, Caithness and Sutherland: Its gossamer plumes seem otherworldly in this area of blanket bog, so damaged by drainage and conifer plantationWhite light shimmers on the horizon - a bright mirage pulling me in. As I draw near, the vision doesn't end but intensifies as, up close, the cottongrass delivers on its promise. Dozens of gleaming seedheads sway with the breeze, lighting the dark peatland. Sometimes called ghost grass, it is easy to get caught up in the wispy trails that top the stems. The gossamer plumes seem almost otherworldly. Yet its more common name of bog cotton grounds this plant in the wetland home that it is very much a part of.Here in the Flow Country of blanket bog in north Scotland, it is common cottongrass that I find most often by banks of sphagnum moss and shining bog pools, or hare's-tail cottongrass stretching out across the peaty moorland. Continue reading...