Species

Typha domingensis

Etymology

Typha: From the Greek name for this plant

Common Name(s)

southern cattail, narrow-leaved cumbungi

Authority

Typha domingensis Pers.

Family

Typhaceae

Flora Category

Vascular - Exotic

Structural Class

Monocotyledonous Herbs

Features

Erect shoots 0.15-0.40 m, not glaucous; flowering shoots 10-20 mm thick in middle; stems 3-4 mm thick near spike. Leaves: sheath sides membranous, margin broadly clear, summit tapered to blade or with persistent, membranous auricles; mucilage glands at sheath-blade transition orange-brown, numerous on entire sheath and proximal 10-100 mm of blade; widest blades on shoot 6-18 mm wide when fresh, 5-15 mm when dry; distal blade about equaling inflorescence. Inflorescences: staminate spike separated from pistillate by (0-)10-80 mm of naked axis, ca. 1.4x longer than pistillate, 10 mm thick at anthesis; staminate scales straw-colored to mostly bright orange-brown, variable in same spike, linear to cuneate, often laciniate distally, to 3-4 x 0.3 mm; pistillate spikes in flower when fresh bright cinnamon-brown with whitish stigmas (drying brownish), later orange- (to medium) brown, in fruit generally paler as stigmas and often bracteole blades wear off, c.60-350 x 5-6 mm in flower, 15-25 mm in fruit; compound pedicels in fruit peg-like, c. 0.6-0.9 mm; pistillate bracteole blades forming spike surface before flowering, later slightly exceeded by stigmas and slightly exceeding pistil hairs, straw-colored to bright orange-brown, much paler than to nearly same color as stigmas, irregularly narrowly to broadly spatulate or lanceolate, 0.8 x 0.1-0.3 mm, mostly wider than stigmas, apex variable in same inflorescence or different plants, acute or acuminate. Staminate flowers 5 mm; anthers 2-2.5 mm, thecae yellow, apex bright orange-brown; pollen in single grains. Pistillate flowers 2 mm in flower, 8-9 mm in fruit; pistil-hair tips straw-colored to orange-brown in mass, usually with 1 subapical bright orange-brown, generally enlarged cell; stigmas often deciduous in fruit, in flower erect, elongating, bending to form surface mat, white in flower when fresh, later bright orange-brown, narrowly linear-lanceolate, ca. 1 x 0.1 mm; carpodia slightly exceeded by pistil hairs, usually evident at fruiting spike surface, straw-colored, orange-spotted, apex broadly rounded. 2n = 30.

Flower Colours

Orange,Yellow

This page last updated on 24 Mar 2010