Plant A Day – Broadleaf Cattail

Broadleaf Cattail
Typha latifolia

There are two species of Cattail in Indiana.  Naturally there couldn’t be just one.  Broadleaf Cattail is the native, non-invasive species of Cattail, as opposed to the Narrowleaf Cattail.  To add to the ID misery, these two species interbreed producing plants that have characteristics of both species.  Oh, well…

Everyone knows what a Cattail looks like … a hot dog on a stick!  Speaking of hot dogs, cattails are most famous for being edible.  The nice thing about them is that several parts of the plant are edible during different seasons.  I’ve never eaten any myself so I won’t try to describe how to prepare them, but here’s a very detailed description of how to go about it.

There is no gap between the upper pollen bearing flowers and the lower female flowers, as opposed to the Narrowleaf Cattail.

Early spring flowerhead