Common Name: CATTAIL FAMILY Habit: Perennial herb, glabrous; monoecious; rhizomes or stolons long; colonial, in wet soil to aquatic. Stem: aerial stem 1, +- cylindric. Leaf: basal and cauline, alternate, 2-ranked, spongy; sheath open; ligule 0; blade +- linear. Inflorescence: spike-like or of spheric, unisexual heads; staminate flowers or heads distal to pistillate ones. Flower: small, densely-packed. Staminate Flower: filaments fused proximally. Pistillate Flower: pistil 1, ovary superior, ovules 1--2(4). Fruit: follicle, splitting in water, or drupe-like. Genera In Family: 2 genera, +- 32 species: worldwide. eFlora Treatment Author: S. Galen Smith Scientific Editor: Douglas H. Goldman, Bruce G. Baldwin.
Common Name: CATTAIL Stem: erect, simple, cylindric, firm, air cavities 0. Leaf: ascending; blade C-shaped or planoconvex in ×-section proximally, flat distally, internal air cavities large; sheath-tip lobes present or not. Inflorescence: terminal; flowers 1000+; staminate flowers distal, mixed with many papery scales; pistillate flowers proximal, clustered on peg-like compound pedicels; bractlets many, thread-like with enlarged tips generally visible at spike surface, or 0. Staminate Flower: stamens 2--7 on slender stalk; filaments slender, generally deciduous in fruit. Pistillate Flower: stalk long-hairy, persistent; ovary chambers 1, style 1, persistent, stigma 1; many modified pistils with enlarged sterile ovary, style deciduous. Fruit: fusiform, thin-walled, yellow-brown, wind-dispersed. Etymology: (Greek: to smoke or emit smoke) Note: Dissecting microscope ideal for Typha identification (flower structures small), which is complicated by hybridization. Unabridged Note:Typha angustifolia × Typha latifolia (Typha × glauca Godr., pro sp.) and Typha domingensis × Typha latifolia (Typha × provincialis A. Camus) are generally highly sterile and intermediate between parents in most characters. Typha angustifolia × Typha domingensis are generally highly fertile, thus species boundaries are locally obscure. Hybrids involving 3 species are locally common. Although putative hybrids may produce no or few seeds they generally form long-persistent clones. Reference: Smith 2000 FNANM 22:278--285
Typha angustifolia L.
NATIVE OR NATURALIZED Habit: Plant 15--30 dm. Stem: 2--3 mm diam at inflorescence. Leaf: sheath-tip lobes ear-like, membranous, disintegrating with age; widest fresh blades 4--15 mm wide, dry 3--8 mm wide, glands 0. Inflorescence: naked stem between staminate, pistillate flowers 1--12 cm; staminate scales hair- to strap-like, brown; pistillate spike dark brown; compound pedicels short, +- blunt, peg-like in fruit, +- 0.5 mm; pistillate bractlets blunt, length = pistillate flower hairs, width >= stigma width, dark brown, generally darker than stigma. Flower: pollen grains single; stigma linear, +- white in flower, light brown in age; sterile ovary green, drying brown, visible at spike surface, reaching pistil hair tips; pistil hair tips swollen, uniformly brown. Chromosomes: 2n=30. Ecology: Nutrient-rich freshwater to brackish marshes, wet disturbed places; Elevation: < 2000 m. Bioregional Distribution: NW, SN, GV, CCo, SnFrB, SCo; Distribution Outside California: to southern British Columbia, central and eastern temperate North America, Eurasia. Flowering Time: May--Aug Note: Possibly naturalized in California. Unabridged Note: If recognized taxonomically, hybrids with Typha latifolia assignable to Typha × glauca Godr. There is strong evidence that Typha angustifolia was introduced from Europe to the Atlantic Coast in colonial times; it has been known from California since at least 1909; it and Typha × glauca are serious invasive weeds in eastern North America. Jepson eFlora Author: S. Galen Smith Reference: Smith 2000 FNANM 22:278--285 Index of California Plant Names (ICPN; linked via the Jepson Online Interchange) Previous taxon: Typha Next taxon: Typha domingensis
Botanical illustration including Typha angustifolia
Citation for this treatment: S. Galen Smith 2012, Typha angustifolia, in Jepson Flora Project (eds.) Jepson eFlora, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/eflora_display.php?tid=47462, accessed on April 19, 2024.
Citation for the whole project: Jepson Flora Project (eds.) 2024, Jepson eFlora, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/, accessed on April 19, 2024.
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(Note: any qualifiers in the taxon distribution description, such as 'northern', 'southern', 'adjacent' etc., are not reflected in the map above, and in some cases indication of a taxon in a subdivision is based on a single collection or author-verified occurence).
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Duplicates counted once; synonyms included.
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