Parts of a Cattail Plant
- All parts of the cattail are edible.Jupiterimages/Photos.com/Getty Images
Cattails, perennial plants of the Typha genus, abound in marshy areas and alongside rivers and streams. You can also find them in drainage ditches and irrigation canals. Cattails prevent erosion in many locations, but in some circumstances, such as when they start growing in rice fields, they become invasive. The various parts of the cattail are edible, if gathered at the appropriate time. - Cattails have a stem that can reach as high as 10 feet, although the typical plant is about five feet high. The stem are pithy, meaning they have a central core of spongy tissue or pith that stores nutrients. The tips of the stems carry the flowerhead.
- The light green, sword-shaped leaves have an erect growing habit and are slightly rounded on the back. The cattail's leaves are generally about five feet high, although they can occasionally reach as high as 10 feet. Approximately one inch in width, the texture of the leaf is coarse. The leaf blade twists slightly from bottom to top.
- The flowers come in a cigar-shaped spike at the tip of the stem. The spike is typically about six inches long and one inch wide. Both male and female flowers occur in single flowerhead. The male flowers, yellow early in the growing season, drop off in the fall and leave behind a grey stem section. Female flowers are firm and green or brown.
- Late in the season the female flowers transform into a brown mass of seeds. A single plant can produce as many as 300,000 seeds. Tiny white hairs cover the seeds, which are yellow-brown and about 1/17 of an inch long. The seeds propagate when dispersed by the wind.
- Cattails have rhizomes, underground stems, which can propagate new plants. The rhizome sends out shoots to create new plants. Cattails are usually found in dense stands due to this growing habit.
