Home Weed ID Publications Dictionary Links FAQs Login About us		Plant Description: Name: common cattail Scientific Name: Typha latifolia Family: Typhaceae Type: Grass-like plant Lifecycle: Perennial Habit: Common cattails are a familiar sight along the shore of any marsh, pond, lake, or river. They can even be found in ditches. Leaves: Leaves are erect and blade-like. Leaf Arrangement: Alternate Characteristics: Cattails are very important for many animals. They provide a place for the red-winged blackbird to build a nest to hide their young, a place for fish to hide or nest under the water, and a food source for young ducklings and muskrats. Cattails also give us humans many products. Their starchy rhizomes (a horizontal root-like stem that sends out roots and leaves) are ripe for eating in fall and winter, all you have to do is peel and cook them like potatoes. Flower Seed Head: Its flower structure has a dense, dark brown, cylindrical spike on the end of a stout, 3'-10' stem. The staminate (male) portion is positioned above the pistillate (female) portion; they are continuous or slightly separated. Male flower is brown, minute, 3/16"-1/2" long, thickly clustered on a club-like spadix; anthers 1mm-3 mm long Female flower is tiny, 2mm-3mm long, when in flower, 10mm-15mm (3/8"-5/8") when in fruit. Female fruiting are pale green when in flower, drying to brownish, later blackish brown or reddish brown, in fruit, often mottled with whitish patches of pistil-hair tips. Seed Fruit: Common Cattail has a tiny fruist with tufted nutlet. Seeds are minute, and numerous. Where Found: They could be found throughout the US. Control Options Related Plants Terms and Definitions Additional Images:
		This site uses JavaScript 1.1 and should be viewed with Microsoft IE or Netscape versions 4.0 or higher. If you experience problems, check to see that your browser is JavaScript compliant or download the appropriate plug-in. To access the member area, click here. Contents © 2001-2003, Shawn Askew, Turfgrass Weed Science, Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University.