Although the name of cotton grass is related to cotton, it has nothing to do with cotton. This kind of grass is extremely good at camouflaging itself, always mixing itself in the weeds, growing very lush in a pile of weeds, not at all afraid of other weeds competing with it, and does not care whether mixing in the weeds will depreciate the value, it is so that it is safe to meet, random a place can grow wantonly, the field, the roadside, the woods, the grassland are all good places for it to live, just because its habit really makes many people love and hate it.
The appearance of this grass can be said to be very difficult to identify, and it is very similar to the appearance of other grasses, a thick and long grass stem, every 1 centimeter or so will give birth to a small fork to grow a leaf, and the oblique upper corner will grow a fork and then grow a leaf, and the two leaves are staggered until the top flower stem is getting thinner and thinner. Cotton grass likes to be lively and grows with other grasses, and cotton grass is very domineering and can absorb the nutrients of other grasses and make itself thrive. The other plants living around the cotton grass are very unlucky, and this neighbor always bullies it, but it can't fight, and can only suffer from emaciation in silence.
It is because of its domineering characteristics that the peasant uncle resents it very much, because it always grows in the middle of the field to absorb the nutrients of the crops, and the crops cannot compete for it to grow vigorously, while the cotton grass grows very comfortably in the field, absorbing the nutrients of the crops, and obviously the weeds can also enjoy the treatment of the crops. Cotton grass is not only with the crops to grab nutrition so useless, it because of the absorption of nutrients from other plants, so its own nutritional value is very high, the farmer uncle in resent it at the same time, but also think of a kind of torture to deal with it, cut it off and feed it to poultry, poultry like its taste very much, it can also supplement the nutrition of poultry.
Cotton grass mainly grows in North China, Northwest China, Southwest China, Jiangxi and other regions. And the adaptability of cotton grass is very strong, whether it is laterite, black soil, sandy soil, clay, and whether the soil is alkaline or acidic, it can live very well, and it especially likes to grow in the field, so life is more and more moist. In the countryside, it also has many other names, such as bamboo valley wind, cotton cocoon, and Qingming yellow flower artemisia, because the Qingming season is the season when it grows well, tender, green, very refreshing, people like to pick it during the Qingming season, make it into dishes and desserts. It is usually made into stir-fry dishes in a pot, or fried or boiled soup, and dumplings can be wrapped during the Qingming Dynasty.
The stem of cotton grass can grow to 10-20 cm, which is very easy to be broken, but it is very different from other plants in that its roots are very tough and difficult to be broken, so its vitality is very tenacious. Every year from summer to winter from August to October, cotton grass can produce small yellow flowers, although the flowers are small, but the color is very tender. In addition to being a good food, cotton grass can also be used as a medicinal herb, such a good plant can be easily found on the side of the road in the wild, the next time you see it, don't mix it with other wild grasses!