The World Flora Online

Stems 1-2.5 m tall, stout. Leaves 45-95 cm × 5-15 mm, abaxially convex, transverse section semilunate. Male part of spikes 3.5-12 cm, with 1-3 deciduous bracts at base or occasionally in middle portion; female part of spikes not separated from male part, 5-23 cm. Male flowers: stamens usually 2; anthers ca. 3 mm. Female flowers without bracteoles; ovary lanceolate; stalk ca. 4 mm, slender; styles 2.5-3 mm; stigmas lanceolate, 1-1.2 mm; hairs on stalk shorter than style. Fruit lanceolate. Fl. and fr. May-Aug. 2n = 30.

Source: [
• 15
]. 

Erect shoots 150--300 cm; flowering shoots 1--2 cm thick in middle, stems 3--7 mm thick near inflorescence. Leaves: usually glaucous when fresh; sheath sides papery or membranous, margins narrowly clear, summit tapered into blade to distinctly shouldered, or rarely with firm, papery auricles; mucilage glands at sheath-blade transition usually colorless, obscure, absent from sheath center and blade; widest blades on shoot 10--23(--29) mm wide when fresh, 5--20 mm when dry, distal blades about equaling inflorescence. Inflorescences: staminate spikes contiguous with pistillate or in some clones separated by to 4(--8) cm of naked axis, about as long as pistillate, ca. 1--2 cm thick at anthesis; staminate scales colorless to straw-colored, filiform, simple, ca. 4  0.05 mm; pistillate spikes in flower pale green drying brownish, later blackish brown or reddish brown, in fruit often mottled with whitish patches of pistil-hair tips, 5--25 cm  5--8 mm in flower, 24--36 mm thick in fruit; compound pedicels in fruit bristle-like, variable in same spike, 1.5--3.5 mm; pistillate bracteoles absent. Staminate flowers 5--12 mm; anthers 1--3 mm, thecae yellow, apex dark brown; pollen in tetrads. Pistillate flowers 2--3 mm in flower, 10--15 mm in fruit; pistil-hair tips colorless, whitish in mass, not enlarged; stigmas persistent, forming solid layer on spike surface, pale green in flower, drying brownish, then reddish brown or usually distally blackish, spatulate, ovate to ovate-lanceolate, 0.6--1  0.2--0.25 mm; carpodia exceeded by and hidden among pistil hairs, straw-colored, apex rounded. Seeds numerous. 2n = 30.

Source: [
• 16
]. 

"Stems 1–3 m; lvs flat, (8–)10–23 mm wide; pistillate and staminate portions of the spike contiguous, or rarely separated by as much as 4 mm, the pistillate portion brown, 10–15 cm, 2–3 cm thick at maturity; compound pedicels long and slender; pistillate bracteoles wanting; stigma broad and thick, spatulate; fr 1 cm, with copious white hairs arising near the base (these linear, not expanded upwards), the achene 1 mm long, above the middle of the whole fr; sterile pistillate fls about as long as the fertile and similarly hairy, expanded into a spatulate tip; staminate bracteoles white, capillary; pollen in tetrads; 2n=30. Clean marshes; nearly cosmop., and throughout our range, the common sp. inland. Hybrids with the next 2 spp. have been called T. ×glauca Godr."

Source: [
• 17
]. 

Plants up to 100-200 cm high. Stem thick, terete. Leaves linear-broadly linear, 8-20 mm broad. Flowering stem equal to or somewhat shorter than the leaves. Male and female parts of inflorescence contiguous. Female parts slightly longer than the male parts at maturity, cylindric, soft, dark brown or blackish brown. Male flowers with simple hairs and pollen in tetrads; filaments 2-3 times as long as anther. Female flower ebracteate, ovary 1/3-1/4 the length of stipe, stigma lanceolate or rhombic, fleshy, dark brown or persistent brown, much surpassing the perianth hairs.

Source: [
• 20
]. 

Tall aquatic herb up to 9 ft. high

Source: [
• 1
]. 

Female inflorescence brown

Source: [
• 1
]. 

Inflorescence of contiguous spikes, each subtended by a caducous foliaceous bract, the ♀ spike sometimes constricted or interrupted, each part with a subtending bract and separated by 0–3.5 cm.

Source: [
• 14
]. 

Male spike 8–12 cm. long, l.3–l.8(–2.5) cm. wide at maturity; bracteoles linear, beige or pinkish-fawn, ± as long as the stamens; stamens with white filaments stouter than the bracteoles; anthers 3–4 mm. long with the connective produced into an obtuse rounded black tip as broad as the anther, or broader; mature pollen grains adhering in tetrads, pale primrose-yellow.

Source: [
• 14
]. 

Female spike 13–16(–25) cm. long, 2.5–3.5(–4) cm. wide, yellow-green at first, becoming dark sepia-brown or almost black at maturity; pedicels numerous, filiform, 20–30 per sq. mm.; bracteoles not present; carpodia pale, speckled with red, ± as long as the perigonous hairs; fertile flowers with a broadly lanceolate stigma much longer than the perigonous hairs.

Source: [
• 14
]. 

Fig. 1/9, p. 3.

Source: [
• 14
]. 

Leaf-sheaths abruptly rounded to auriculate at the junction with the blade and scarious-margined, sometimes purple-spotted within; blade linear, up to 2 m. long, 8–10 mm. wide, with an obtuse tip and narrow base, the base flat above and convex beneath in dried material, glabrous, glaucous.

Source: [
• 14
]. 

Stems erect, stout 1.5–3.5 m. high.

Source: [
• 14
]. 

1–2,5 m hoch, Blätter lineal, am blütentragenden Stängel 2zeilig, 1–2 cm breit, steif aufrecht, blaugrün, den Blütenstand meist überragend. Blüten eingeschlechtig, kronblattlos, in je einem 5–20 cm langen, kolbenförmigen, sehr dichten Blütenstand,

Source: [
• 18
]. 

Erva

In permanent water.

Source: [
• 1
]. 

6–7. Stehende, schlammige Gewässer bis ca. 1,5 m Tiefe, kollin(-montan). CH.

Source: [
• 18
]. 

Aquática

SELECTED REFERENCES

Kaul, R. B. 1974. Ontogeny of foliar diaphragms in Typha latifolia. Amer. J. Bot. 61: 318--323. Rowlatt, U. and H. Morshead. 1992. Architecture of the leaf of the greater reed mace, Typha latifolia L. Bot. J. Linn. Soc. 110: 161--170. Yeo, R. R. 1964. Life history of common cattail. Weeds 12: 284--288.

Source: [
• 16
].