TYPHACEAE 



CATTAIL FAMILY 



COMMON CATTAIL 



Typha lati folia L. 



The Cattail family has a single genus, represented in Illinois 

 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. 

 angustiJoUa 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 i 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 I 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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