210 Lake Maxinkuckee, Physical and Biological Survey 

 Family 8. Typhace^. Cat-tail Family 



29. BROAD-LEAVED CAT-TAIL 



TYPHA LATIFOLIA L. 



The most extensive patch of cat-tail about the lake is that 

 along the north end of Lost Lake. It also grows abundantly in low 

 ground between the lake and Culver, and fringes the shore of the 

 lake from the Assembly grounds down to the vicinity of the ice- 

 houses. There are numerous scattered patches in the marsh about 

 Norris Inlet. A fringe grows on the west side of Lost Lake, and 

 it borders the outlet below Lost Lake in places. There is none 

 along the east or north shores of Lake Maxinkuckee. East of the 

 lake, up Aubeenaubee Creek, however, there are extensive cat-tail 

 marshes. Wherever it grows the cat-tail forms dense patches. It 

 thrives best in a rich soft mucky soil. It rarely grows out in more 

 than six inches of water, and grows out on shore only as far as the 

 soil is soft enough and well saturated. The cat-tails growing 

 farthest out in the lake are associated with bulrushes, while those 

 growing on drier land are intermixed with sedges. Where it grows 

 in water, such algse as Chsetophora are frequently attached to the 

 submerged portion of the stem. The song sparrows, red-winged 

 blackbirds and marsh wrens find the cat-tails a good hiding place, 

 and the wrens almost invariably build their nests in the cat-tail 

 patches and all the large patches contained the queer globular 

 nests of this bird. 



The muskrats are fond of dwelling in the cat-tail patches, mak- 

 ing their houses partly of the stalks and sometimes feeding on the 

 root-stocks. The seeds with their downy covering are said to have 

 some market value for the purpose of stuffing pillows and on one 

 occasion the local newspaper had an advertisement of a firm wish- 

 ing to buy them. The leaves appear from a sharp cone-shaped 

 bud in early spring. Green leaves were noted by the third of May, 

 1901, and the plants in Green's marsh were in blossom by the 

 twelfth of June. With the approach of autumn the cat-tail 

 gradually turns brown and dies. The heads gradually wear away 

 during the winter, probably assisted somewhat by the pecking of 

 birds. They were looking quite ragged by November 2. The seeds 

 probably germinate, for the most part, in spring. One head, 

 water-soaked and with most of the seeds all sprouted, was found 

 at the north end of the lake in autumn, but this was probably an 

 exceptional case. 



Along with the sedge patches, the patch of cat-tails north of 



