Arctic Cotton
date: label: Accession Date
content: 31 Jan 1887
name: label: Donor Name
content: U. S. Department of the Navy
notes: label: Notes
content: Plant fibers in an old cigar box. Old note with artifact identifies as ""Cotton-grass" Eriophorum calothrix; Cumberland Gulf Canada Used as tinder by Eskimo - WH [Walter Hough]."
label: Notes
content: This is presumably "Eriophorum callitrix, commonly known as Arctic cotton, Arctic cottongrass, suputi, or pualunnguat in Inuktitut, is a perennial Arctic plant in the sedge family, Cyperaceae. It is one of the most widespread flowering plants in the northern hemisphere and tundra regions. Upon every stem grows a single round, white and wooly fruit. The seeds are covered in this cottony mass and usually disperse when the wind carries them away. Eriophorum callitrix narrow, grass-like leaves. ... The Inuit used the seed heads as wicks in seal oil lamps." - Wikipedia contributors, "Eriophorum callitrix," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Eriophorum_callitrix&oldid=950412589 (accessed May 31, 2020).
label: Record Last Modified
content: 2 Sep 2022
label: Specimen Count
content: 2
place: label: Place
content: Baffin Island / Cumberland Sound, Nunavut, Canada, North America
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 018616
label: USNM Number
content: E127980-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Tinder / Cigar Box