Typha
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Typha | |
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| Typha latifolia | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| (unranked): | Angiosperms |
| (unranked): | Monocots |
| (unranked): | Commelinids |
| Order: | Poales |
| Family: | Typhaceae |
| Genus: | Typha L. |
| Species | |
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Typha is a genus of about eleven species of monocotyledonous flowering plants in the monogeneric family, Typhaceae. The genus has a largely Northern Hemisphere distribution, but is essentially cosmopolitan, being found in a variety of wetland habitats. These plants are known in British English as bulrush, bullrush or reedmace,[1] in American English as cattail, punks, or corndog grass, and in New Zealand as raupo. Typha should not be confused with other plants known as bulrush, such as some sedges (mostly in Scirpus and related genera).
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[edit] Description
Typha leaves are alternate and mostly basal to a simple, jointless stem that eventually bears the flowering spikes. The rhizomes spread horizontally beneath the surface of muddy ground to start new upright growth, and the spread of Typha is an important part of the process of open water bodies being converted to vegetated marshland and eventually dry land.
Typha plants are monoecious and bear unisexual, wind-pollinated flowers, developing in dense spikes. The numerous male flowers form a narrow spike at the top of the vertical stem. Each male (staminate) flower is reduced to a pair of stamens and hairs, and withers once the pollen is shed. The very large numbers of tiny female flowers form a dense, sausage-shaped spike on the stem below the male spike – in larger species this can be up to 30 centimetres (12 in) long and 1 to 4 centimetres (0.39 to 1.6 in) thick. Seeds are minute, 0.2 millimetres (0.0079 in) long, and attached to a fine hair. When ripe the heads disintegrate into dense cottony fluff, from which the seeds disperse by wind. Typha is often among the first wetland plants to colonize areas of newly exposed wet mud; it also spreads by rhizomes, forming dense stands often to the exclusion of other plants.
[edit] Species
- Typha angustifolia - Lesser Bulrush or Narrow Leaf Cattail
- Typha domingensis - Southern Cattail
- Typha ×glauca (angustifolia × latifolia) - Hybrid or White Cattail
- Typha latifolia - Common Cattail
- Typha laxmannii - Laxman's Bulrush
- Typha minima - Dwarf Bulrush
- Typha muelleri - Raupo
- Typha orientalis - Raupo
- Typha shuttleworthii - Shuttleworth's Bulrush
The most widespread species is Typha latifolia, extending across the entire temperate northern hemisphere. T. angustifolia is nearly as widespread, but does not extend so far north; some believe it is introduced and invasive in North America. T. domingensis is a more southerly American species, extending from the U.S. to South America, while T. laxmannii, T. minima and T. shuttleworthii are largely restricted to Asia and parts of southern Europe.
Typha plants grow along lake margins and in marshes, often in dense colonies, and are sometimes considered a weed in managed wetlands. The plant's root systems help prevent erosion, and the plants themselves are often home to many insects, birds and amphibians.
[edit] Uses
[edit] Edible uses
Typha has a wide variety of parts that are edible to humans. The rhizomes are a pleasant, nutritious and energy-rich food source, generally harvested from late autumn to early spring. These are starchy, but also fibrous, so the starch must be scraped or sucked from the tough fibers. In addition to the rhizomes, Typha has underground, lateral stems that are quite tasty. The bases of the leaves can be eaten raw or cooked, in late spring when they are young and tender. As the flower spike is developing in early summer, it can be broken off and eaten like corn on the cob. In mid-summer, once the male flowers are mature [2], the pollen can be collected and used as a flour supplement or thickener. Typha has also recently been suggested as a source of oil.[clarification needed]
The boiled rootstocks have been used for increasing urination, or used mashing, to make a jelly-like paste for sores, boils, wounds, burns, scabs, inflammations, and smallpox pustules.
[edit] Other uses
The disintegrating heads are used by some birds to line their nests. The downy material was also used by Native Americans as tinder for starting fires.
Native American tribes also used Typha down to line moccasins, provide bedding, diapers, baby powder, and papoose boards. An Indian name for Typha meant, "fruit for papoose’s bed". Today some people still use Typha down to stuff clothing items and pillows. [3] When using the Typha for pillow stuffing, dense batting material is used, as the fluff may cause a skin reaction similar to urticaria.
The down has been used to fill life vests in the same manner as kapok.[citation needed]
Typha can be used as a source of ethanol, instead of cereals.[clarification needed] They have the advantage that they do not require much, if any, maintenance.[4]
One informal experiment has indicated that Typha is able to remove the poisonous element arsenic from drinking water. Such a filtration system may be one way to provide cheap water filtration for people in developing nations.[5]
Typha orientalis is used to make compostable food packaging.[6]
[edit] References
- ^ Collins Complete British Wildlife
- ^ Lee Allen Peterson, Edible Wild Plants
- ^ http://www.cattails.wordpress.com
- ^ Heldreth, David (August 11, 2008). "Cattails can be Ethanol Source". Blue Mountain Eagle (Grant County, Oregon). http://bioenergy.checkbiotech.org/news/2008-08-11/Cattails_can_be_ethanol_source/. Retrieved 2008-08-21.
- ^ "Inexpensive Arsenic Filtration System Based on Cattails Could Help Clean Up the Drinking Water of 57 Million People". http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/07/inexpensive-arsenic-water-filtration-system-cheap-cattails.php.
- ^ "Be Green Packaging press kit". http://www.begreenpackaging.com/pdf/BGP_PressKit09-LO.pdf.
