Typha
Encyclopedia
Typha is a genus
of about eleven species
of monocotyledonous flowering plants in the family Typhaceae
. The genus has a largely Northern Hemisphere
distribution, but is essentially cosmopolitan
, being found in a variety of wetland
habitats. These plants are known in British English
as bulrush, bullrush, or reedmace, in American English
as cattail, catninetail, punks, or corndog grass, in Australia
as cumbungi or bulrush, and in New Zealand
as raupo. Typha should not be confused with other plants known as bulrush, such as some sedges
(mostly in Scirpus
and related genera
).
Their rhizome
s are edible. Evidence of preserved starch
grains on grinding stone
s suggests they were eaten in Europe 30,000 years ago.
s spread horizontally beneath the surface of muddy ground to start new upright growth, and the spread of Typha is an important part of the process of open water bodies being converted to vegetated marshland and eventually dry land.
Typha plants are monoecious and bear unisexual, wind-pollinated flowers, developing in dense spike
s. The numerous male flowers form a narrow spike at the top of the vertical stem. Each male (staminate) flower is reduced to a pair of stamen
s and hairs, and withers once the pollen
is shed. The very large numbers of tiny female flowers form a dense, sausage
-shaped spike on the stem below the male spike — in larger species this can be up to 30 centimetres (11.8 in) long and 1 to 4 cm (0.393700787401575 to 1.6 in) thick. Seeds are minute, 0.2 millimetre (0.0078740157480315 in) long, and attached to a fine hair. When ripe the heads disintegrate into dense cottony fluff, from which the seeds disperse by wind. Typha is often among the first wetland plants to colonize areas of newly exposed wet mud; it also spreads by rhizomes, forming dense stands often to the exclusion of other plants.
The most widespread species is Typha latifolia, extending across the entire temperate northern hemisphere. T. angustifolia is nearly as widespread, but does not extend so far north; some believe it is introduced and invasive
in North America
. T. domingensis is a more southerly American
and Australian species, extending from the U.S.
to South America
. T. orientalis is widespread in eastern & northern Australia, temperate & tropical Asia, New Zealand. T. laxmannii, T. minima, and T. shuttleworthii are largely restricted to Asia
and parts of southern Europe
. Typha latifolia has also been recently introduced into fresh water creeks and lakes in Australia where the water is shallow and contains levels of dirty, turbid water. It affects the flow of the water and also filters the water and catches floating or submerged items, possibly damming the water flow.
Typha plants grow along lake margins and in marshes, often in dense colonies, and are sometimes considered a weed in managed wetlands. The plant's root systems help prevent erosion
, and the plants themselves are often home to many insects, birds and amphibian
s.
can be collected and used as a flour supplement or thickener. Typha has also recently been suggested as a source of oil. However, the plant's airborne seeds have also been known to create skin irritation and can trigger asthma.
Starch grains have been found on grinding stone
s widely across Europe from 30,000 BP suggesting that Typha plants were a widely used Upper Paleolithic
food.
The disintegrating heads are used by some birds to line their nests. The downy material was also used by some Native American
tribes as tinder
for starting fires.
Some Native American tribes also used Typha down to line moccasins, and for bedding, diapers, baby powder, and papoose boards. One Native American word for Typha meant "fruit for papoose's bed". Today some people still use Typha down to stuff clothing items and pillows. When using Typha for pillow stuffing, dense batting material is used, as the fluff may cause a skin reaction similar to urticaria
.
Typha can be dipped in wax or fat and then lit as a candle, the stem serving as a wick. It can also be lit without the use of wax or fat, and it will smolder slowly, somewhat like incense, and may repel insects.
The down has been used to fill life vests
in the same manner as kapok
.
Typha can be used as a source of starch to produce ethanol
, instead of cereal
s. They have the advantage that they do not require much, if any, maintenance.
One informal experiment has indicated that Typha is able to remove the poisonous element arsenic
from drinking water. Such a filtration system may be one way to provide cheap water filtration for people in developing nations.
The boiled rootstocks have been used as a diuretic
for increasing urination, or used mashed to make a jelly-like paste for sores, boils, wounds, burns, scabs, and smallpox pustules.
Typha orientalis is used to make compostable food packaging.
Genus
In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...
of about eleven species
Species
In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...
of monocotyledonous flowering plants in the family Typhaceae
Typhaceae
Typhaceae is the botanical name for a family of flowering plants. Such a family has been recognized by most taxonomists.The APG II system, of 2003 , also recognizes this family, and assigns it to the order Poales in the clade commelinids, in the monocots...
. The genus has a largely Northern Hemisphere
Northern Hemisphere
The Northern Hemisphere is the half of a planet that is north of its equator—the word hemisphere literally means “half sphere”. It is also that half of the celestial sphere north of the celestial equator...
distribution, but is essentially cosmopolitan
Cosmopolitan distribution
In biogeography, a taxon is said to have a cosmopolitan distribution if its range extends across all or most of the world in appropriate habitats. For instance, the killer whale has a cosmopolitan distribution, extending over most of the world's oceans. Other examples include humans, the lichen...
, being found in a variety of wetland
Wetland
A wetland is an area of land whose soil is saturated with water either permanently or seasonally. Wetlands are categorised by their characteristic vegetation, which is adapted to these unique soil conditions....
habitats. These plants are known in British English
British English
British English, or English , is the broad term used to distinguish the forms of the English language used in the United Kingdom from forms used elsewhere...
as bulrush, bullrush, or reedmace, in American English
American English
American English is a set of dialects of the English language used mostly in the United States. Approximately two-thirds of the world's native speakers of English live in the United States....
as cattail, catninetail, punks, or corndog grass, in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
as cumbungi or bulrush, and in New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
as raupo. Typha should not be confused with other plants known as bulrush, such as some sedges
Cyperaceae
Cyperaceae are a family of monocotyledonous graminoid flowering plants known as sedges, which superficially resemble grasses or rushes. The family is large, with some 5,500 species described in about 109 genera. These species are widely distributed, with the centers of diversity for the group...
(mostly in Scirpus
Scirpus
The plant genus Scirpus consists of a large number of aquatic, grass-like species in the family Cyperaceae , many with the common names club-rush or bulrush . Other common names are deergrass or grassweed.The genus has a cosmopolitan distribution, and grows in wetlands and moist soil...
and related genera
Genus
In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...
).
Their rhizome
Rhizome
In botany and dendrology, a rhizome is a characteristically horizontal stem of a plant that is usually found underground, often sending out roots and shoots from its nodes...
s are edible. Evidence of preserved starch
Starch
Starch or amylum is a carbohydrate consisting of a large number of glucose units joined together by glycosidic bonds. This polysaccharide is produced by all green plants as an energy store...
grains on grinding stone
Grinding Stone
Grinding Stone is a 1973 debut album by Gary Moore, released under the "The Gary Moore Band" moniker.-Track listing:All songs by Gary Moore.# "Grinding Stone" – 9:38# "Time to Heal" - 6:19# "Sail Across the Mountain" - 6:58...
s suggests they were eaten in Europe 30,000 years ago.
Description
Typha leaves are alternate and mostly basal to a simple, jointless stem that eventually bears the flowering spikes. The rhizomeRhizome
In botany and dendrology, a rhizome is a characteristically horizontal stem of a plant that is usually found underground, often sending out roots and shoots from its nodes...
s spread horizontally beneath the surface of muddy ground to start new upright growth, and the spread of Typha is an important part of the process of open water bodies being converted to vegetated marshland and eventually dry land.
Typha plants are monoecious and bear unisexual, wind-pollinated flowers, developing in dense spike
Raceme
A raceme is a type of inflorescence that is unbranched and indeterminate and bears pedicellate flowers — flowers having short floral stalks called pedicels — along the axis. In botany, axis means a shoot, in this case one bearing the flowers. In a raceme, the oldest flowers are borne...
s. The numerous male flowers form a narrow spike at the top of the vertical stem. Each male (staminate) flower is reduced to a pair of stamen
Stamen
The stamen is the pollen producing reproductive organ of a flower...
s and hairs, and withers once the pollen
Pollen
Pollen is a fine to coarse powder containing the microgametophytes of seed plants, which produce the male gametes . Pollen grains have a hard coat that protects the sperm cells during the process of their movement from the stamens to the pistil of flowering plants or from the male cone to the...
is shed. The very large numbers of tiny female flowers form a dense, sausage
Sausage
A sausage is a food usually made from ground meat , mixed with salt, herbs, and other spices, although vegetarian sausages are available. The word sausage is derived from Old French saussiche, from the Latin word salsus, meaning salted.Typically, a sausage is formed in a casing traditionally made...
-shaped spike on the stem below the male spike — in larger species this can be up to 30 centimetres (11.8 in) long and 1 to 4 cm (0.393700787401575 to 1.6 in) thick. Seeds are minute, 0.2 millimetre (0.0078740157480315 in) long, and attached to a fine hair. When ripe the heads disintegrate into dense cottony fluff, from which the seeds disperse by wind. Typha is often among the first wetland plants to colonize areas of newly exposed wet mud; it also spreads by rhizomes, forming dense stands often to the exclusion of other plants.
Species
- Typha angustifoliaTypha angustifoliaTypha angustifolia L., , is a perennial herbaceous plant of genus Typha. This cattail is an "obligate wetland" species that is commonly found in the northern hemisphere in brackish locations...
- Lesser Bulrush, Narrow Leaf Cattail (America) or Jambu (India) - Typha domingensisTypha domingensisTypha domingensis Pers., also known as Southern Cattail or Cumbungi, is a perennial herbaceous plant of genus Typha.It is found throughout temperate and tropical regions worldwide...
- Bulrush, Southern Cattail (America) or Narrow-leaved Cumbungi (Australia) - Typha × glauca (angustifolia × latifolia) - Hybrid or White Cattail. SterileSterility (physiology)Sterility is the physiological inability to effect sexual reproduction in a living thing, members of whose kind have been produced sexually. The term may be used in reference to* types of organism, such as the mule, a sterile hybrid;...
hybrid. - Typha latifoliaTypha latifoliaTypha latifolia 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...
- Common Cattail - Typha laxmannii - Laxman's Bulrush
- Typha minimaTypha minimaTypha minima, common name Dwarf Bulrush or Miniature Cattail or Least Bulrush, is a perennial herbaceous plant belonging to the Typhaceae family.-Description:...
- Dwarf Bulrush - Typha muelleri - Raupo (New Zealand)
- Typha orientalis - Broadleaf Cumbungi (Australia) or Raupo (New Zealand)
- Typha capensis - Cape bulrush
- Typha shuttleworthii - Shuttleworth's Bulrush
Invasive species
"Invasive species", or invasive exotics, is a nomenclature term and categorization phrase used for flora and fauna, and for specific restoration-preservation processes in native habitats, with several definitions....
in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
. T. domingensis is a more southerly American
Americas
The Americas, or America , are lands in the Western hemisphere, also known as the New World. In English, the plural form the Americas is often used to refer to the landmasses of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions, while the singular form America is primarily...
and Australian species, extending from the U.S.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
to South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
. T. orientalis is widespread in eastern & northern Australia, temperate & tropical Asia, New Zealand. T. laxmannii, T. minima, and T. shuttleworthii are largely restricted to Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
and parts of southern Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
. Typha latifolia has also been recently introduced into fresh water creeks and lakes in Australia where the water is shallow and contains levels of dirty, turbid water. It affects the flow of the water and also filters the water and catches floating or submerged items, possibly damming the water flow.
Typha plants grow along lake margins and in marshes, often in dense colonies, and are sometimes considered a weed in managed wetlands. The plant's root systems help prevent erosion
Erosion
Erosion is when materials are removed from the surface and changed into something else. It only works by hydraulic actions and transport of solids in the natural environment, and leads to the deposition of these materials elsewhere...
, and the plants themselves are often home to many insects, birds and amphibian
Amphibian
Amphibians , are a class of vertebrate animals including animals such as toads, frogs, caecilians, and salamanders. They are characterized as non-amniote ectothermic tetrapods...
s.
Culinary uses
Typha has a wide variety of parts that are edible to humans. The rhizomes, underground lateral stems, are a pleasant nutritious and energy-rich food source that when processed into flour contains 266 kcal per 100 g. They are generally harvested from late autumn to early spring. These are starchy, but also fibrous, so the starch must be scraped or sucked from the tough fibers. The bases of the leaves can be eaten raw or cooked, in late spring when they are young and tender. In early summer the sheath can be removed from the developing green flower spike which can than be boiled and eaten like corn on the cob. In mid-summer, once the male flowers are mature, the pollenPollen
Pollen is a fine to coarse powder containing the microgametophytes of seed plants, which produce the male gametes . Pollen grains have a hard coat that protects the sperm cells during the process of their movement from the stamens to the pistil of flowering plants or from the male cone to the...
can be collected and used as a flour supplement or thickener. Typha has also recently been suggested as a source of oil. However, the plant's airborne seeds have also been known to create skin irritation and can trigger asthma.
Starch grains have been found on grinding stone
Grinding Stone
Grinding Stone is a 1973 debut album by Gary Moore, released under the "The Gary Moore Band" moniker.-Track listing:All songs by Gary Moore.# "Grinding Stone" – 9:38# "Time to Heal" - 6:19# "Sail Across the Mountain" - 6:58...
s widely across Europe from 30,000 BP suggesting that Typha plants were a widely used Upper Paleolithic
Upper Paleolithic
The Upper Paleolithic is the third and last subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age as it is understood in Europe, Africa and Asia. Very broadly it dates to between 40,000 and 10,000 years ago, roughly coinciding with the appearance of behavioral modernity and before the advent of...
food.
Other uses
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
tribes as tinder
Tinder
Tinder is easily combustible material used to ignite fires by rudimentary methods. A small fire consisting of tinder is then used to ignite kindling. Anything that can be ignited by a match can be considered tinder; or by more rigorous definition, anything that begins to glow under a shower of...
for starting fires.
Some Native American tribes also used Typha down to line moccasins, and for bedding, diapers, baby powder, and papoose boards. One Native American word for Typha meant "fruit for papoose's bed". Today some people still use Typha down to stuff clothing items and pillows. When using Typha for pillow stuffing, dense batting material is used, as the fluff may cause a skin reaction similar to urticaria
Urticaria
Urticaria is a kind of skin rash notable for pale red, raised, itchy bumps. Hives is frequently caused by allergic reactions; however, there are many non-allergic causes...
.
Typha can be dipped in wax or fat and then lit as a candle, the stem serving as a wick. It can also be lit without the use of wax or fat, and it will smolder slowly, somewhat like incense, and may repel insects.
The down has been used to fill life vests
Personal flotation device
A personal flotation device is a device designed to assist a wearer, either conscious or unconscious, to keep afloat.Devices designed and approved by authorities for use by...
in the same manner as kapok
Kapok
Ceiba pentandra is a tropical tree of the order Malvales and the family Malvaceae , native to Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean, northern South America, and to tropical west Africa...
.
Typha can be used as a source of starch to produce ethanol
Ethanol
Ethanol, also called ethyl alcohol, pure alcohol, grain alcohol, or drinking alcohol, is a volatile, flammable, colorless liquid. It is a psychoactive drug and one of the oldest recreational drugs. Best known as the type of alcohol found in alcoholic beverages, it is also used in thermometers, as a...
, instead of cereal
Cereal
Cereals are grasses cultivated for the edible components of their grain , composed of the endosperm, germ, and bran...
s. They have the advantage that they do not require much, if any, maintenance.
One informal experiment has indicated that Typha is able to remove the poisonous element arsenic
Arsenic
Arsenic is a chemical element with the symbol As, atomic number 33 and relative atomic mass 74.92. Arsenic occurs in many minerals, usually in conjunction with sulfur and metals, and also as a pure elemental crystal. It was first documented by Albertus Magnus in 1250.Arsenic is a metalloid...
from drinking water. Such a filtration system may be one way to provide cheap water filtration for people in developing nations.
The boiled rootstocks have been used as a diuretic
Diuretic
A diuretic provides a means of forced diuresis which elevates the rate of urination. There are several categories of diuretics. All diuretics increase the excretion of water from bodies, although each class does so in a distinct way.- Medical uses :...
for increasing urination, or used mashed to make a jelly-like paste for sores, boils, wounds, burns, scabs, and smallpox pustules.
Typha orientalis is used to make compostable food packaging.
External links
- Can you actually eat cattails? from The Straight Dope