Eriophorum latifoliumHoppe

broad-leaved cottongrass

WFO wfo-0000415025 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Eriophorum latifolium, photographed by Christian Berg
fig. a Christian Berg, CC BY 4.0 / 2020-08-02 / obs. 92303430
Eriophorum latifolium, photographed by Cilla Moerman
fig. b Cilla Moerman, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 87292592
Eriophorum latifolium, photographed by kalopsia
fig. c kalopsia, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 85697321
Eriophorum latifolium, photographed by Wouter Koch
fig. d Wouter Koch, CC0 1.0 / obs. 92625098
Eriophorum latifolium, photographed by gill_ryenats
fig. e gill_ryenats, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 45146685
Eriophorum latifolium, photographed by Силаева Татьяна Борисовна
fig. f Силаева Татьяна Борисовна, CC0 1.0 / obs. 79181610
Eriophorum latifolium, photographed by Ina Siebert
fig. g Ina Siebert, CC0 1.0 / obs. 44909517
Eriophorum latifolium, photographed by Patrick Hacker
fig. h Patrick Hacker, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 131906301

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

The specimen a real sheet, in a real collection

Herbarium
Smithsonian, US National Herbarium
Accession
US 2519720
Filed as
Eriophorum latifolium Hoppe
Det. by
Léveillé-Bourret, E.
Collected
L. Heikkinen 1963
Origin
FI
The sheet
View the digitised specimen (CC0 1.0)

A real pressed plant, in a real collection, under the accession number above. Not an illustration of one. The holding institution does not serve this sheet’s image to third parties, so there is no photograph here. The record is real and the link goes to it. Where we hold no openly licensed sheet for a species this section is simply absent, and where a sheet never recorded who determined it, that field stays empty rather than being filled in. Roughly half of all herbarium sheets never recorded a determiner, which is ordinary.

Native range 34 botanical countries

Regions where Eriophorum latifolium is native: Korea, Mongolia, North Caucasus, Transcaucasus, Türkiye, Albania, Austria, Baltic States, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Central European Russia, Czechia-Slovakia, Denmark, East European Russia, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, North European Russia, Northwest European Russia, Norway, NW. Balkan Pen., Poland, Romania, South European Russia, Spain, Switzerland, Ukraine MongoliaNorth CaucasusTranscaucasusTürkiyeAlbaniaAustriaBaltic StatesBelarusBelgiumBulgariaCentral European RussiaCzechia-SlovakiaDenmarkEast European RussiaFinlandFranceGermanyGreeceHungaryIrelandItalyNetherlandsNorth European RussiaNorthwest European RussiaNorwayNW. Balkan Pen.PolandRomaniaSouth European RussiaSpainSwitzerlandUkraine Korea
Native distribution of Eriophorum latifolium, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Albania ALB EUROPE
Austria AUT
Baltic States BLT
Belarus BLR
Belgium BGM
Bulgaria BUL
Central European Russia RUC
Czechia-Slovakia CZE
Denmark DEN
East European Russia RUE
Finland FIN
France FRA
Germany GER
Great Britain GRB
Greece GRC
Hungary HUN
Ireland IRE
Italy ITA
Netherlands NET
North European Russia RUN
Northwest European Russia RUW
Norway NOR
NW. Balkan Pen. YUG
Poland POL
Romania ROM
South European Russia RUS
Spain SPA
Switzerland SWI
Ukraine UKR
Korea KOR ASIA-TEMPERATE
Mongolia MON
North Caucasus NCS
Transcaucasus TCS
Türkiye TUR

Not drawn on the map: Great Britain. We hold no public-domain boundary for this region, so it is listed rather than guessed at.

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Where it actually grows measured, from 625 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -13.8 °C -7.2 °C -1.0 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 15.7 °C 20.8 °C 25.2 °C
Annual rainfall 602 mm 1,109 mm 2,015 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 95 mm 186 mm 397 mm

It is found where winters bring hard frost. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 625 research-grade observations of Eriophorum latifolium that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.

Also published as 11 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Carex alopecurus Lapeyr.
  • Eriophorum depauperatum Arv.-Touv.
  • Eriophorum latifolium var. congestum Baguet
  • Eriophorum latifolium var. ramosum Gray
  • Eriophorum polystachion f. latifolium (Hoppe) Regel
  • Eriophorum polystachion subsp. latifolium (Hoppe) Bonnier & Layens
  • Eriophorum polystachion var. latifolium (Hoppe) A.Gray
  • Eriophorum pubescens Sm.
  • Eriophorum vulgare Pers.
  • Plumaria latifolia (Hoppe) Bubani
  • Scirpus angustifolius subsp. latifolius (Hoppe) T.Koyama

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.