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Common Cattail, Typha latifolia L.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Larry M. Mitich
Larry M. Mitich*
Affiliation:
Department of Vegetable Crops, University of California, Davis, CA 95616
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Extract

      Straight-backed sentinels in high crowned busbies
      rise in crowded companies
      from river bank and marsh.
      Grown old and fluffed with a thousand florets
      gone to seed, the heads make fine torches
      for skaters on the pond.
    (“Cattails,” Prentice and Sargent 1973)

Until recent times, Typha was the sole genus of Typhaceae, the cattail family. Now the family has been extended to include Sparganium, the burreeds. The 15 species of Typha are prevalent and bothersome emergent aquatic weeds with a worldwide distribution (Heywood 1993; Hickman 1993). The genus Typha was erected in 1753 by Carolus Linnaeus in his Genera Plantarum.

Information

Type
Intriguing World of Weeds
Information
Weed Technology , Volume 14 , Issue 2 , June 2000, pp. 446 - 450
Copyright
Copyright © Weed Science Society of America 

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References

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