Typha angustifolia L.
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Typha angustifolia L.
Typhaceae (Cat-Tail Family)CosmopolitanNarrow Leafed Cat-Tail |
June Photo
Plant Characteristics:
Tall perennial herb with creeping rhizomes, stems simple, submerged at
base, 1-1.5 m. tall; lvs. 7-13, much exceeding female spikes, sometimes by half
their length, usually ca. 5 mm. wide, strongly convex on the back, dark green,
the sheaths usually auriculate at their summit; female portion of mature spike
8-20 cm. long, 1.3-2 cm. thick, uniform, dark-brown or red-brown in color,
becoming greenish-brown as stigmas wear off and finally mottled dark brown and
buff; bracts spatulate, blunt, dark brown, opaque and firm; stigmas dark brown,
linear, not fleshy; interval between male and female parts of spike variable,
but usually ca. twice the diam. of the female spike; male spike with simple or
forked, linear, brown bracts and light lemon-yellow 1 celled pollen.
Habitat:
Mostly in subalkaline water at low elevs.; Freshwater Marsh; to Atlantic
Coast. Below 2000 m.
Eurasia. June-July.
Name:
Typha, the ancient Greek name.
(Munz, Flora So. Calif. 1012.
Latin, angust, narrow and Latin, folium, leaf.
(Jaeger 19,104). Referring
to the narrow leaves.
General:
Occasional in the study area but not nearly so common as T. latifolia.
Photographed in the Delhi Ditch and on the Santa Ana Heights Flats.
(my comments). In the days of the Indians, much more
use was made of the Cat-Tail than in present day.
A kind of bread was made from the pollen, the thick creeping root was
roasted or dried raw and ground into meal.
The young shoots were eaten as bamboo shoots.
Floor mats and roof thatching were made from the leaves, which with the
leaf sheaths were used as caulking materials in canoes and houses.
(Balls 33). Cat-Tails are chiefly a
nuisance as weeds in over-irrigated lands, in rice fields, and in irrigation
ditches. In the latter situation they may retard the flow of water,
making necessary periodic dredging. When
once established they are difficult to eradicate unless the area is drained.
(Robbins et al. 36).
Typha species have been known to cause hay fever and asthma.
(Fuller 383).
The crystallized excretion from insects of the Homoptera order was
used by Indians as sugar. The mealy
plum aphis prefers Phragmites reeds as a summer host but will also use
the leaves and stems of Typha spp. to deposit its sweet excretion.
(Campbell 145).
Cattails and bulrushes were twined to form flexible baskets, mats for sleeping,
sitting, working, entertaining, covering doorways, for shade and many other
uses. The leaves and sheath bases
were used by some tribes for caulking. The
Apache used the pollen in female puberty ceremonies.
(Strike 1994). Cattail fluff
can be used as tinder, insulation, or for lining baby cradle boards.
Lengths of cattail were woven into rope which in some areas was used to
bind tule bundles into tule boats. Air
pickets or aerenchyma in the stems provide the buoyancy that makes cattail and
tule good boat building material. (Stevens,
Michelle L., "ETHNOECOLOGY OF SELECTED
Text Ref:
Hickman, Ed. 1309; Munz, Flora So. Calif. 1012; Roberts 49.
Photo Ref:
May-June 86 # 9,10; June 1 86 # 20,21.
Identity: by R. De Ruff.
First Found: May 1986.
Computer Ref: Plant Data 288.
Have plant specimen.
Last edit 3/36/05.
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June Photo