2010 Cotton Growing at Croftangreen by Jim Brown

Pictured here in 2010 by Jim Brown is a grass known as Bog Cotton. Yes, that IS real cotton, photographed growing wild in Blantyre Parish.

Actually the plant is quite common in Northern Europe and the Americas. It adapts and thrives on marshy conditions, hence the nickname Bog Cotton. During the war, it was picked and used as cotton dabs during medical emergencies and throughout the ages, if you find enough quantities of it, it can be picked, dried and used for the finest pillow stuffing.

I like the fact it grows in Blantyre. Far less sinister way of obtaining cotton that the means merchants used to harvest it in the 1700s.