Bullrush

Description:

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. Seeds are minute, 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. 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 has a wide variety of parts that are edible to humans. The rhizomes, are a nutritious and energy-rich food source processed into flour .The bases of the leaves can be eaten raw or cooked, The sheath can be removed from the developing green flower spike which can then be boiled and eaten like corn on the cob. Once the male flowers are mature, the pollen can be collected and used as a flour supplement or thickener.

Habitat:

being found in a variety of wetland habitats.

Notes:

Control is difficult. Although this is a natural species of wetlands, there is growing concern about the degree to which it is replacing other native species ( from the Great Lakes to the Everglades) Native sedges are being displaced, and wet meadows are shrinking. This is likely a response to altered hydrology of these wetlands, and to increased nutrient levels. However, an introduced or hybrid species may be contributing to the problem as well. The most successful strategy appears to be mowing or burning (to remove the aerenchymous stalks) followed by prolonged flooding. However, it may be more important to be preemptive by maintaining wide water level fluctuations (including periods of drought) along with infertile conditions to prevent invasion in the first place.