Cattails, Typha latifolia
Introduction
Cattails are flowering plants. This means they belong to the group of plants that produces flowers, which develops into fruit and seeds. Cattails belong to the same family of flowering plants as grasses. Cattails are very recognizable and capture the attention of children and adults everywhere.
Appearance and Habitat
Like grasses, cattails have long, narrow leaves (except that cattail leaves are very, very long – often as long as an adult is tall). As with grass leaves, the veins in the cattail leaves run parallel to each other. The veins of plant leaves carry nutrients and water back and forth from the roots to the leaves. Cattails grow in wet areas and along the edges of lakes and waterways. They have a “hotdog-like” structure at the top of the plant that holds the male and female flowers, which develop into the seeds. The flowers are generally inconspicuous which is common in flowers that are pollinated by the wind rather than insects.
Special Relationships
Even though it grows in very wet areas, the roots of cattails also have an important relationship with fungi in the ground called mycorrhizae. The mycorrhizal fungi provide hard-to-get nutrients to plants in exchange for sugars such as glucose.
Human Uses
Cattails are sometimes referred to as the “grocery store of the swamp” because almost all parts of cattails are edible. In the spring, the green shoots of the cattails can be consumed as a steamed vegetable. Cattails flower at the beginning of July. The entire flower spike can be steamed and eaten like corn on the cob before it matures too far. Once mature, the male flowers at the top of the spike produce abundant amounts of yellow pollen (this pollen can be collected by shaking the spikes into bags and used as a portion of flour in many recipes). On the spike, the female flowers are grouped below the male flowers. As the season progresses the female flowers will mature and produce the big hotdog-shaped collection of fruits that so many of us are familiar with. These seeds are spread by the wind and can be thrown into the wind in bunches for entertainment. In the winter, the roots of the cattails can be dug and roasted or used to make flour and starch.
The seeds of the cattail are very abundant and fluffy, trapping air so well that they were traditionally used for many different purposes. The entire head could be used as a torch by soaking it in oil, wax or another fuel. The seeds also make great tinder for starting fires, or wicks for lamps. Another main use for the fluff was as stuffing in pillows, mattresses, diapers and any cold-weather clothing where insulation is required. During World War II it was even used to stuff life jackets.
Cattail leaves can be woven, forming a mat, which can be lined with the fluff for insulation. The roots help alleviate the pain of burns and skin infections.
Biomimicry
Scientists inspired by the unique abilities of certain organisms often try to create inventions based on those unique abilities: this is called biomimicry. The cattail filters contaminants out of the water. Many water filtration systems try and mimic how cattail swamps trap and breakdown contaminants. In some places they have given up trying to mimic cattail swamps and just use them directly to clean their water.
Scientific Name
Cattail is the most common name for this plant, although it is sometimes called bulrush– but there is also another wetland plant that is referred to as bulrush. For this reason, common names can be deceptive and biologists use the scientific name, Typha latifolia.
~Monica Schuegraf
