Cattails, or Typha, is a flowering plant commonly found throughout the northern hemisphere in marshy areas and around the borders of streams and lakes.
Cattails are one of the most recognizable water plants due to the unique appearance of their flower stems.
This unique appearance is due to a straight stem on a sausage-shaped arrangement of densely packed female flowers topped by a pointed spike of male flowers. This method is where the plant gets its name due to the resemblance of the flowering stem to a tufted cat’s tail.
Cattails have, in the past, been used for numerous purposes. Every part of the plant, from the rhizomes it grows to the pollen. The plant produces evidence suggesting that humans have been eating cattails for at least 30.000 years. The seeds are wind distributed via the down, which covers the seeds, and this down has been collected and used as clothing insulation, pillow stuffing, and filler for life preservers. The boiled rootstocks have been used for their diuretic properties or processed into a paste to treat wounds. Modern research has even shown that the ever-versatile cattail can be used in the manufacture of ethanol.
Despite the many uses of cattails, the most common use is as decorative greenery. When planted near a pond, swamp, or other streamside, the cattail provides lush, elegant, easily recognizable greenery. The cattail is king for any wetland natural area as its stems provide hiding places for water creatures, a variety of animals sometimes eat the edible flowering heads, and birds use the down from the seed heads to line their nests. The versatile cattail is rapidly becoming one of the most sought-after plants for wetlands, natural areas, and landscaping.
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