Cattail

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Broadleaf Cattail
Typha spp.
Typha latifolia
Typha latifolia
Scientific classification
Kingdom Not provided
Phylum Not provided
Class Not provided
Order Not provided
Family Typhaceae
Genus Typha
Species angustifolia and latifolia


Contents

[edit] Introduction

Famously referred to by Euell Gibbons as the "Supermarket of the Swamps"[1]

[edit] Description

[edit] Identification

Cattails grow 5 to 9 feet (1.5 to 3 metres) high and have 1 to 1.5 inch (2 to 4 cm) broad leaves.

We’re all familiar with the female cattail flower. When you think of a cattail, this is what you’re thinking of. It’s the elongated, brown, cigar-shaped flower that gives the plant its common name. The distinctiveness of the female flower makes the cattail one of the most recognizable wild plants around.

The male flower grows just above the female and disappears once its job of pollinating is done (Typical male.) There is sometimes a bit of flower stalk between the two flowers, or they can grow right on top of each other. This bit of stalk between the flowers if often used to distinguish the difference between the two species T. latifolia and T. angustifolia, however there is often so much cross breeding between the two species that you may find characteristics of both in the same colony.

The leaves grow basally from a central, straigh stalk which will eventually bear the flowers. The leaves resemble swords with their long, straight margins and pointed tips. They lack midribs, hairs and teeth.

[edit] Poisonous Look-alikes

Notice how the iris leaves (left) differ from the cattail leaves (right) in that the cattail leaves have no midrib and have more blunted tips.
Notice how the iris leaves (left) differ from the cattail leaves (right) in that the cattail leaves have no midrib and have more blunted tips.

Brill reminds us to be careful not to confuse cattail leaves with non-poisonous calamus (Acorus spp.) leaves or with poisonous daffodil (Narcissus spp.) and iris (Iris spp.) shoots. Calamus is noted for its spiciness and odor (being used as a fragrant floor covering). Brill also notes that cattail leaves are odorless when broken, and their inner core is sweet, whereas the poisonous lookalikes would be bitter in taste.[2]

The similarity between cattail leaves and daffodil or iris leaves is only comparable in early spring when the cattail leaves are very short. As cattails can grow to be nine feet tall and are often at least waist high, as they mature, they will be far easier to distinguish between the small daffodils and irises which would only be a couple feet at most. Daffodils are also one of the earliest blooming flowers in spring. When in doubt, look for the dead cattail plants from the previous year which should be profuse in any enduring stand.

See songlines.

[edit] Origin, Distribution, Habitat, and Life Cycle

Origin and Distribution 
Cattails can be found throughout the temperate, tropical and subtropical areas of the Northern Hemisphere to which they are native. Related species also extend into South America.
Habitat 
Typha plants grow along lake margins and in marshes, swamps and ditches--often in dense colonies.
Life Cycle
Perennial
Phenology
The shoots emerge within a month of the spring equinox.
The male flowers go to pollen around the summer solstice.
The flowers bloom mid to late summer.

[edit] Common Names

  • Bulrush
  • Common Bulrush
  • Broadleaf Cattail
  • Common Cattail
  • Cat-o'-nine-tails
  • Greater reedmace (primarily British for T. latifolia)
  • Lesser reedmace (primarily British for T. angustifolia)

[edit] Related Species

  • Typha angustifolia - Lesser Bulrush or Narrow Leaf Cattail
  • Typha domingensis - Common Cattail
  • Typha latifolia - Broadleaf Cattail or Southern Cattail
  • Typha angustifolia x T. latifolia - Hybrid or White Cattail (sometimes classified as T. x glauca)
  • Typha laxmannii - Laxman's Bulrush
  • Typha minima - Dwarf Bulrush
  • Typha shuttleworthii - Shuttleworth's Bulrush

[edit] Uses

[edit] Edible Uses

[edit] Cossack’s asparagus

At the base of the cattail’s leaves you will find the delicious Cossack’s asparagus. You can pull the young plant up from the rhizome by grasping it at the base. The leaves will come up easily from the root stock. Peel back the green leaves until you find the white core inside at the base. The soft, edible part will easily give way under pressure from your thumbnail or teeth so that you can distinguish it from the pale leaf bases that grow out of the heart. This soft core serves as a mild, cucumbery vegetable.

You needn't worry about harming the plant by pulling it up from the root if you harvest in a thick stand of cattails. Not only will the plant you have pulled up come back later in the year, but the cattail also grows a colony plant that spreads from a branching, underground system of rhizomes. However, if the leaves have grown pretty tall, you can allow the plant to keep growing by only pulling out the core. Gently pull back the outer leaves from the core before you pull the plant up from its root. Then grasp the core and pull it out of the middle of the plant.

[edit] Male Flower

The immature male flower is edible when it is still covered in its papery sheath (much like a corn husk). Both Wildman Steve Brill[2] and Euell Gibbons[1] recommend boiling them and serving them with some kind of oil or butter. This is due to the dry texture of the flower. Euell Gibbons would often report serving them in a carafe of water, heated over a Sterno, with a pat of butter floating on top. That way, when you pull the flower spike out to eat it, the melted butter floating on top of the water will coat the flower as you removed it from the carafe, perfectly coating it.[1][3] You’ll have to eat around the stiff spike that the flower grows on. This core is very woody and not palatable. Instead of eating the flower like corn on the cob, you could also shave the flesh away from the core. Brill recommends doing this after cooking.[2]

Fresh male flowers, ready for eating raw or cooking.
Close up of the male flower's texture
Several male flowers
The woody core inside the male flower.

[edit] Pollen

The time for harvesting cattail pollen is fleeting and occurs just after the "cattail corn" stage as the top (male) flower matures. At this time the cattail heads will appear green and yellow. Unfortunately, many people never notice the cattail until it develops it's distictive brown seed head. The pollen can be collected by tapping the head above a bucket or jar. This pollen is a nutritious additive to any meal but makes a great additon to pancake batter when substitued for part of the flour. Cattail pollen does not subsitute perfectly for flour as the moisture content and absorptive qualities are different and the gluten (the gluey substance that holds dough together) is missing. When I tried a pancake recipe the resultant pancakes were delicious-thinner and softer, more like a crepe than a traditional pancake. Try them with jam. I have noticed different patches of cattails located only a few miles from eachother maturing as much as three weeks apart. So if you think you have missed the pollen season, don't be so sure.

Male flowers that have begun to go to pollen.

[edit] Rhizome

The cattail rhizome may be found during any time of the year the ground is not frozen. Since cattails usually grow in a swamp this is much of the year. Cattail rhizomes, like most root parts, can be collected at any time but are best in the fall and throughout the winter into spring because at this time they not using their energy to produce leaves and flowers and are storing starch for the next growing season. They are easily located during these times by looking for the standing dead plants and distinctive brown "hotdog" seedheads.

To find a cattail rhizome reach down into the muck at the base of a plant and feel around for the sideways root or rhizomes. Follow this rhizome as far as possible and pull it out. Make sure it is alive and white on the inside before you spend a lot of time digging it out. Some rhizomes will be rotten and brown.

Each rhizome consists of a tough inedible outer layer and a stringy starchy core. These rhizomes can be dried, pounded, and sifted to make flour or the starch can be washed out into a bucket and allowed to settle, then the water can be poured off and the starch used as is or spread out and dried. These are methods for making cattail flour. A simple way to eat cattail rhizome in the field is to bury it for about five minutes in a bed of hot coals and then chew the sticky starch out of the outer rhizome and the strings that run through the center.

Note: If there are white horn-like protuberances coming off of the rhizome, save these, they are cattail shoots and very tender and tasty.

[edit] Lateral

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[edit] SLOTSM

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[edit] Medicinal Uses

[edit] Medicinal Properties

Hemostatic, Astringent, Diuretic, Emenagogue, Antiseptic, Coagulent, Anesthetic

[edit] Pollen

The pollen works as a hemostatic & astringent. Place directly on cut to control bleeding. Take internally for internal bleeding, menstrual pain, chest pains, & other forms of blood stagnation. Pollen has also mild diuretic and emenagogue effects.

[edit] Root

Use fresh, pounded root directly as a poultice on infections, blisters, & stings. Mashed starchy roots make a workable toothpaste. To help bind diarrhea and/or dysentrery, mix root flour in a cup of hot water & drink it, or eat the young flowerheads.

[edit] Leaves

The sticky starch at the base of the green leaf works as an antiseptic, coagulant, & has numbing effects. Boiled leaves work well for an external skin wash.

[edit] Practical Uses

[edit] Lore

[edit] Names and Meanings

  • The specific name latifolia means "wide-leafed".[4]
  • The specific name of the related species T. angustifolia means "narrow-leafed".[4]
  • The generic name Typha comes from the root typh meaning "smoky" or "dull".[4]

[edit] Gallery

A stand of cattails in flower
The female flower having gone to seed
Female cattail flowers after the male flower has gone to pollen and dissipated
Close up of the male flower

[edit] Disclaimer

Disclaimer Rewild.info, its parent company Mythmedia, and Rewild.info contributors are not responsible or liable for any of the information used on this website. Practice at your own risk!

[edit] Sources

Attribution

Wiki Authors

Web

  • see Attribution and References

Books

  • see Attribution and References
  • Tom Brown Jr's Guide to Edible and Medicinal Plants

References

  1. ^ a b c Gibbons, Euell, Stalking the Wild Asparagus
  2. ^ a b c Brill, Steve, Identifying and Harvesting Wild Edible and Medicinal Plants in Wild (and Not So Wild) Places
  3. ^ Gibbons, Euell, Stalking the Good Life: My Love Affair With Nature
  4. ^ a b c The Garden Gate: Roots of Botanical Names


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