Flower Guide
Wild Flowers East of the Rockies
Grouped in their Natural Order as in the Latest Edition of Gray’s Botany
Cat-Tail Family (Typhaceæ)
The members of this family are very abundant aquatic herbs with perennial roots. We have two species with differences as noted below. Both have staminate yellow flowers in a spike above pistillate brown ones; the former soon fall or blow away, while the latter develop into the large, familiar, brown cat-tail that is often used for decorative purposes.
(A) Common Cat-tail (Typha latifolia) has yellowish staminate flowers encircling the upper end of the flower stalk, and immediately below a long cylindrical mass of brownish pistillate ones. The pollen grains are arranged in fours. Leaves three to eight feet long, sheathing at the base. Found in marshes throughout the United States and southern Canada, flowering in June and July.
(B) Narrow-leaved Cat-tail (Typha angustifolia) has narrower leaves, averaging less than ¾ in. broad. The two kinds of flowers are separated by a bare space of stalk and the pollen grains are simple.