TYPHACEAE 



Typha (Cat-tail) 



Plants of shores, marshes, wet and intermittently wet places, both 

 fresh and saline waters; growing from creeping rhizomes; leaves long, 

 erect and twisted, sheathing at the base; flowers unisexual, pistillate 

 flowers in a dense cylindrical spike borne below the staminate spike; 

 fruit a minute stipitate achene with a long, persistent style. 



Key to Species 



1. Staminate and pistillate portions of spike contiguous, occasionally 

 separated by a distance less than 5 mm (fig. 1); mature pistillate 

 spike 12-35 mm in diameter, dark brown. 



1. T. latifolia 



1. Staminate and pistillate portions of the spike separated by a dis- 

 tance of more than 5 mm (fig. 2A); mature pistillate spike 6-20 mm in 

 diameter, reddish or cinnamon-brown. 



2. Stem 0.75-1.5 m tall; leaf blades 3-8 mm wide, deep green; pistillate 

 spike 0.3-1.5 dm long. 



2. T. angustifolia 



2. Stem 2.0-3.5 m tall; leaf blades 6.5-11.0 mm wide, blue-green, 

 glaucous; pistillate spike 1.8-5.0 dm long. 

 3. T. X glauca 



1. Typha latifolia L. Fig. 1, Map 1 



Extremely common throughout New England. Plants of damp 

 shores, marshes and roadside ditches. Plants with a small separation 

 of the staminate and pistillate spikes, have been described as Typha 

 latifolia forma ambigua (Sonder) Kronf. and may be confused with T. 

 angustifolia or T. X glauca. Range extends from Newfoundland west 

 to Alaska, south throughout the United States, and scattered widely in 

 Mexico. 



alkalinity: mean 39.2 mg/1; range 1.5-170.0 mg/1 

 pH: mean 7.4; range 5.4-9.8 mg/1 



2. Typha angustifolia L. Fig. 2, Map 2 



Common along the coast in salt marshes and inland in alkaline 

 waters of western New England; scattered in acid regions of interior 

 southern New England. Range extends from Nova Scotia west to 

 southern Quebec, Ontario, southern Montana, Wyoming and south- 



