Typha domingensis
Family: Typhaceae
Plant Description: Perennial, 1-2.5 m cm high, forming colonies. Leaves linear. Flowers minute, unisexual, the male in a tail-like spike 2-4 m above the cylindroid light-brown female. Grow from rhizomes. Leaves are 2-ranked. Sheathing leaves are flat, linear, sessile, and attached in 2 vertical rows, often exceeding the eight of the stem.
Plant Trivia: Can tolerate brackish waters to salinities to 3.5 ppt
Field Identification: Tall grass-like plant with a terminal cigar-like structure.
Occurrence: Common in set fresh or brackish soils, mostly in ditches, swales, and marshes and along stream and lake banks.
Bloom Period: May-October
Plant Use: Plant rhizomes are used as a source of food for small mammals and geese. Insect-eating birds forage and nest among stands of cattails. Leaves are sometimes woven to make mats. Thick stands are good for filtering toxins and excessive nutrients from wetlands.
Key to species of Typha:
1. Male and female spikes separate………………………………………………..T domingensis
Male and female spikes adjoining………………………………………………………T. latifolia
stxflora 