Typhaceae

Plant Characteristics

Cultivation

Scientific Names

Typhaceae >

Read about Typhaceae in the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture

Typhaceae (from the genus Typha, the old Greek name). Cattail Family. Fig. 6. Perennial marsh herbs, with creeping rootstocks, and long-linear, erect, mostly basal leaves: flowers monoecious, naked, in a dense terminal spike, which is staminate above and pistillate below, each sex subtended by one bract-like spathe; perianth 0; stamens 2-5; filaments connate, bearing long, silky hairs; carpels 1: ovary 1-celled, raised on a stipe which also bears long, silky hairs: ovule 1, suspended; style slender: fruit a nutlet; seed albuminous. A single genus and about 12 species occur in the tropical and temperate zones. Fossil species are known. The family is closely related to the Sparganiaceae, with which it was formerly united. These two families constitute a very distinct group of simple-flowered Monocotyledons. The habit, the flowers borne in spikes without perianth, the hairy pedicels, the absence of bracts, and the simple pistil, are together distinctive. The starchy rootstocks are sometimes used for food. The leaves are woven into matting, and into chair-bottoms, and are used for calking barrels. The pollen has been used as a substitute for the spores of Lycopodium. The rootstock is used in East Asia for dysentery and urethritis, and the leaves in various localities for thatching cottages. A vain attempt has been made to utilize the silky hairs of the fruit for making velvet. Two species of Typha (Cattail Flag, Reed Mace), both native, are in the American trade for water-gardens.CH The above text is from the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture. It may be out of date, but still contains valuable and interesting information which can be incorporated into the remainder of the article. Click on "Collapse" in the header to hide this text.

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References

• Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture, by L. H. Bailey, MacMillan Co., 1963

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