cattail cotton; bulrush down
The fluffy seed fibers of cattails (Typha) or similar plants, used historically as tinder or stuffing.
They gathered cattail fluff and stuffed it into a pillow.
In the past, cattail cotton was used as tinder.
Standard kanji spelling.
Rare variant using 絮; 穂綿 is preferred.
Compound of 穂 (ho, 'ear/head of a plant') and 綿 (wata, 'cotton'), referring to the cotton-like fluff from plant spikes.