Allendale, Northumberland: Cottongrass is useful for protecting peat and feeding black grouse – and this year, after the dry spring, it’s thrivingFrom high on the Allendale moors, I can see right to the Scottish border and the soft blue outline of the Cheviot Hills. Below me, the West Allen Valley holds deeper colours, the land green and bounded with stone walls or dotted with small woods. Shadows thrown by the early evening light pick out every feature: streams, cleughs, barns and farms, mining spoil and ruins – a record of the land.The wind is warm, buffeting the cottongrass that stretches across the boggy ground and along the roadside ditch. It’s a boom year for this beautiful plant, perhaps due to the dry spring putting the plants under stress. A sedge rather than a grass, Eriophorum angustifolium flourishes in its harsh moorland environment, sending out underground rhizomes where few other plants will grow; a line of snow poles shows what the winters are like. The plant’s ability to survive here gives it the alternative name of bog cotton. Continue reading...