TYPHACEAE CATTAIL FAMILY 
COMMON CATTAIL 
Typha latifolia L. 
The Cattail family has a single genus, represented in IIlinois 
by only two species. Of them the Common Cattail is abundant 
in swamps and slow-running streams throughout temperate 
North America; the other species, T. 
angustifolia L., with narrower leaves, 
is rare. 
Leaves and flower stalks arise 
from a stout underground stem which 
creeps in the mud toward the water, 
branching as it grows and sending 
out a multitude of fibrous roots. The 
stiff, erect, grasslike leaves, 4-8 feet 
long and not more than 1 inch wide, 
are sharply pointed and keen edged. 
The flower stalk is sheathed at its 
base by the leaves and usually does 
not exceed them in height. 
The dimorphous flowers are 
densely crowded in a terminal spike 
about 1 inch thick and perhaps 12 
inches long. Staminate flowers are 
above the pistillate. Each staminate 
flower is attached directly to the axis 
of the spike and has 2-7 stamens whose 
filaments are grown together. Each 
pistillate flower is but a small ovary 
on a short stalk and is without 
bractlets. The pollen grains are in 
fours. The flowers are formed in 
June and July and the seeds mature 
during August and September. The 
fruit is furrowed, bursting in water, and the seeds have a separ- 
able outer coat. 
Long hairs and bristles are interspersed with the flowers and 
later form the down that buoys up the tiny nutlike seeds when 
they are carried away by the wind. Sometimes the down is 
used as a filling for pillows. 
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