Plantae > Tracheophyta > Liliopsida > Poales > Typhaceae > Typha > Typha latifolia

Typha latifolia (Reedmace; Common Cattail)

Synonyms:

Wikipedia Abstract

Typha latifolia (broadleaf cattail, bulrush, common bulrush, common cattail, great reedmace, cooper's reed, cumbungi) is a perennial herbaceous plant in the genus Typha. It is found as a native plant species in North and South America, Europe, Eurasia, and Africa. In Canada, broadleaf cattail occurs in all provinces and also in the Yukon and Northwest Territories, and in the United States, it is native to all states except Hawaii. It is an introduced and invasive species, and considered a noxious weed, in Australia and Hawaii. It is not native but has been reported in Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, and the Philippines.
View Wikipedia Record: Typha latifolia

Invasive Species

View ISSG Record: Typha latifolia

Attributes

Allergen Potential [1]  Medium
Screening - Summer [2]  Porous
Screening - Winter [2]  Porous
Bloom Period [2]  Late Spring
Drought Tolerance [2]  None
Edible [3]  May be edible. See the Plants For A Future link below for details.
Fire Tolerance [2]  High
Flower Type [3]  Monoecious
Frost Free Days [2]  3 months 10 days
Fruit/Seed Abundance [2]  High
Fruit/Seed Begin [2]  Summer
Fruit/Seed End [2]  Fall
Growth Form [2]  Rhizomatous
Growth Period [2]  Spring, Summer
Growth Rate [2]  Rapid
Leaf Type [4]  Deciduous
Lifespan [3]  Perennial
Pollinators [3]  Wind
Propagation [2]  Bare Root, Seed, Sprig
Regrowth Rate [2]  Moderate
Root Depth [2]  14 inches (36 cm)
Seed Spread Rate [2]  Moderate
Seed Vigor [2]  Medium
Shape/Orientation [2]  Erect
Structure [4]  Herb
Usage [3]  The stems and leaves have many uses. Gathered in the autumn they make a good thatch, can be used in making paper, can be woven into mats, chairs, hats etc; They are a good source of biomass, making an excellent addition to the compost heap or used as a source of fuel etc. The pulp of the plant can be converted into rayon; The stems can be used to make rush lights. The outer stem is removed except for a small strip about 10mm wide which acts as a spine to keep the stem erect. The stem is then soaked in oil and can be lit and used like a candle; The female flowers make an excellent tinder and can be lit from the spark of a flint; A fibre is obtained from the blossom stem and flowers; A fibre obtained from the leaves can be used for making paper; The hairs of the fruits are used for stuffing pillows etc; They have good insulating and buoyancy properties and have also been used as a wound dressing and a lining for babies nappies; The flowering stems can be dried and used for insulation, they also have good buoyancy properties; The pollen is highly inflammable, it is used in making fireworks etc;
Vegetative Spread Rate [2]  Rapid
Flower Color [2]  Brown
Foliage Color [2]  Green
Fruit Color [2]  Brown
Fruit Conspicuous [2]  Yes
Height [3]  8.2 feet (2.5 m)
Width [3]  9.84 feet (3 m)
Hardiness Zone Minimum [2]  USDA Zone: 3 Low Temperature: -40 F° (-40 C°) → -30 F° (-34.4 C°)
Light Preference [5]  Mostly Sunny
Soil Acidity [5]  Neutral
Soil Fertility [5]  Rich
Soil Moisture [5]  Wet
Water Use [2]  High
View Plants For A Future Record : Typha latifolia

Ecoregions

Protected Areas

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Ecosystems

Predators

Consumers

External References

USDA Plant Profile

NatureServe Explorer

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1Derived from Allergy-Free Gardening OPALS™, Thomas Leo Ogren (2000)
♦ 2USDA Plants Database, U. S. Department of Agriculture
♦ 3Plants For A Future licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
♦ 4Kattge, J. et al. (2011b) TRY - a global database of plant traits Global Change Biology 17:2905-2935
♦ 5ECOFACT 2a Technical Annex - Ellenberg’s indicator values for British Plants, M O Hill, J O Mountford, D B Roy & R G H Bunce (1999)
♦ 6Jorrit H. Poelen, James D. Simons and Chris J. Mungall. (2014). Global Biotic Interactions: An open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics.
♦ 7Biological Records Centre Database of Insects and their Food Plants
♦ 8HOSTS - a Database of the World's Lepidopteran Hostplants Gaden S. Robinson, Phillip R. Ackery, Ian J. Kitching, George W. Beccaloni AND Luis M. Hernández
♦ 9American Coot Nesting and Feeding Habits in Southeastern Washington, R. E. Fitzner, E. T. Sipco, R. G. Schreckhise, Northwest Science Vol. 54, No. 4, 1980, p. 244-252
♦ 10Composition and Seasonality of Diet in Wild Hamadryas Baboons: Preliminary Findings from Filoha, Larissa Swedell, Getenet Hailemeskel, Amy Schreier, Folia Primatol 2008;79:476–490
♦ 11Ben-Dov, Y., Miller, D.R. & Gibson, G.A.P. ScaleNet 4 November 2009
♦ 12Study of Northern Virginia Ecology
Ecoregions provided by World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF). WildFinder: Online database of species distributions, ver. 01.06 Wildfinder Database
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0