Two Kinds of Cattails. Wide-leaved cattails are Typha
latifolia. Narrow-leaved cattails are Typha angustifolia.
Other than their leaf width and name, they're pretty much the same plant.
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You can see the runners best at the top right.
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Same plant one week later.
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Same "runners" another three weeks later.
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Established cattails in spring.
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Same stand three weeks later. Can you see the female red-wing
blackbird. They love cattails.
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Mature flowers of the cattail
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Cattails grow six feet tall.
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Entire shallow pond (all the way to the trees) filled with cattails.
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Narrow-leaved cattails in an Iowa bog garden.
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Cattail blooms give the plant its name. These are the thin-leaved
guys.
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Wide-leaved cattails grow a thicker, shorter, and darker brown bloom.
Cattails will take over
any natural pond. Always pot them in unbreakable containers.
Once they
“escape,” they spread rapidly.
Boy scouts learn you can eat the roots of cattails. They taste
nasty. And you
cannot smoke the
“cigars” that grow on the ends. And you thought all they did was
help senior citizens cross the Freeway.
LA.
© 2003,
© 2004
LA Productions

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