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Typha (cattail, bulrush & other common names)

Most commonly called cattails in the U.S., there are about 30 recognized species of the typha genus around the world. The most common species, Typha latifolia, is widespread across the northern hemisphere. It has also been introduced into Australia.

Cattails grow in wetland environments. Its sword-like leaves grow from the base. They have both male and female parts. The female flowers, called pistillate flowers or pistillate spikes, grow near the top of stiff, straight, featureless stalks that can range from 5 to 10 feet tall depending on the species. The pistillate spikes are the prominent, brown, sausage-like objects--also known as seed heads--that are easily seen above. The male parts, called staminate spikes or male spikes, grow above the flower on the same stalk. they are much thinner than the female flower and tend to be yellowish in color, though they appear brownish In the photo above.

This photo shows the difference between the two more clearly.

The relative sizes of the male and female parts vary between species, as does the amount of gap between the two. Some species have no gap at all.

The photos below show female pistillate spikes at various stages of maturity.

The fuzzy-looking stuff coming out of the seed heads are masses of incredibly tiny seeds. Depending on the species, there can be from 117,000 to 268,000 seeds in a single seed head. The photo below shows what a seed looks like. 1000 micrometers is less than 4 one-hundredths of an inch in length. The stigma is what receives pollen, causing the development of the seed.

The tiny hairs aid seeds to become airborne for wide dispersal in the wind.

This species of cattail has a much more prominent staminate spike.

When mature, masses of pollen are easily shaken off.

After male staminate spikes mature and release their pollen, they dry up and fall off the stalk. Female pistillate spikes mature shortly after and begin to be fertilized, primarily by wind-borne pollen. Cattails are also able to self-fertilize. 

Cattails can propagate from seed, but they also propagate through a spreading rhizome, an underground horizontal stem that clones new, aboveground plants. Such clones are genetically identical.

Cattails are perennials. The leaves and stalks die off in the winter, but the underground rhizome continues to live, and new clones grow in the spring. The two photos below show the same area, a bog. The first photo was taken in May following the winter die-off. The second photo was taken two months later.

Because cattails propagate so rapidly, they are sometimes considered to be harmful because of their ability to totally take over water ways. They reduce water flow, creating mosquito habitats and reducing the effectiveness of stormwater drainage systems. 

Supported by interlocking rhizomes, portions of buoyant cattail marshes and can float free of the soil.

Floating portions of cattail marshes sometimes break free of rooted sections to become free-floating cattail mats. Cattail mats can become up to 3 feet thick, and some have been as much as 10 acres in size.

In the instance above, boats were used to push the mat into a narrow cove where land-base equipment was able to remove it.

Cattail Uses

Cattails have many beneficial attributes, too. They create a habitat for fish and other aquatic creatures. They provide places for birds and mammals to hide from predators, and they can serve as a food source in several ways.

Cattails provide construction material for muskrats and beavers. The fluff or down from seed heads was used to line moccasins of indigenous peoples and make cradle boards comfortable for papooses. The absorbent nature of the fluff was also useful in papoose diapers. Cattail fluff was used in floatation devices during World War II. Cattails can be used to create ethanol, a renewal energy resource. The leaves are useful for weaving. There have been many other uses.

Cattails are also food sources for animals and humans. When young and stripped of the outer layers, cattail stems are edible, cooked or raw.

The rhizome is loaded with starch and has a protein content comparable to maize or rice.

One use is to clean it up, chop it into disks, and fry it to make cattail rhizome chips.

Both immature male and female blossoms can be pealed, boiled, and eaten like corn on the cob. The male parts are more delicious and have a greater amount of edible pulp.

Cattail pollen can be used like flour in cooking.

Artwork

Ikebana

Cattails are sometimes used in Japanese ikebana floral arrangements.

Miyagawa Shuntei (1873 – 1914)

Shuntei was born into the wealthy Watanabe family, but when his mother inherited the extinct Miyagawa family name, he changed his name along with her. Shuntei began showing artistic and literary talent at the age of 12, and at age 14, he began copying Chinese calligraphy and paintings. He moved to Tōkyō in 1890 and studied art under Tomioka Eisen (1864 – 1865), a relatively young but well-established professional artist. Shuntei became enamored of ukiyo-e prints and specialized in hanga (woodblock) prints of children and bijin-ga (pictures of beautiful people). The print below, produced in 1898, is titled Beauty Admiring Cattails. It is part of a series titled Customs and Manners (1897 – 1898).