Cattail is a plant familiar to many, as it grows everywhere where there are water bodies. Often they call it reeds, and even confuse it with reeds and sedges, although they all differ in appearance. They also differ in their useful properties.
To understand the difference between them, in particular, between reeds and cattails, consider each plant separately.
Reed and sedge
The reed plant, outwardly similar to thin long rods, resembles a sedge. It grows in bushes, and its flowers are inconspicuous tassels on thin blades of grass. Few people pay attention to these inconspicuous plants growing on the banks of reservoirs, and almost no one thinks that this is a reed.
There is another plant from the sedge family, similar to cattail and reeds. This is a sedge, quite easily distinguished from grasses and includes more than 4000 species. Its stem, similar to straws of cereals, is hollow inside and has a trihedral shape. Shouldalso note that both reeds and sedges have useful properties, as does cattail.
Description of cattail cattail
Cattail (or Turk) is a coastal aquatic plant, which is the only genus of plants belonging to the cattail family. In the wild, it grows along the marshy shores of lakes, rivers, oxbow lakes, ponds, reservoirs and canals, as well as in swamps.
2 types of roots grow from a creeping thick rhizome: thin for nourishment in water, thick for fixing and nourishing in the ground. Sufficiently thick stems of cattail grow up to 3-6 meters in height. Upward-directed, broad-leaved leaves are up to 4 meters long.
During flowering (June-July), cylindrical velvet cobs of inflorescences, painted in dark brown, appear on long peduncles of the plant. The female flowers are located on the bottom of the cob, and the male flowers are on the top. Pollination of the plant occurs with the help of wind. In autumn, small fruits ripen, equipped with a fly of hairs, floating after shedding on the water surface for about a month, and subsequently falling to the bottom of the reservoir. With the onset of spring, they sprout.
Growing places
The angustifolia cattail is fairly widespread throughout the world. There are about two dozen species of this plant. Only four varieties grow in Russia.
This plant grows in all temperate and tropical zones of the globe. It mainly grows in shallow waters, along the coastal parts of reservoirs, on alkaline and rich soils.
Differences from other plants
Reed, cattail and reeds are often confused, but they have differences.
The most common lake bulrush and many other varieties of this plant usually have bare stems and no leaves. And cattail is easy to distinguish by the dark "plush" cob, for which the Americans called him "cat's tail", and the Russians - "priests' hoods" (hats) and "devil's sticks".
Use of angustifolia cattail
- The fluff of this plant is used to stuff pillows, life jackets (raw materials have high buoyancy), and also make hats and shoes from it.
- Cattail, like reeds with sedge, is an excellent cleaner of reservoirs. According to studies, wastewater passing through the thickets of this plant is freed from toxic substances by 95%.
- Using this plant, you can easily build a fire. Dry seed heads are excellent as tinder for flint and flint, even in winter conditions.
- Angustifolia cattail is also good as a building material, with which you can not only build certain structures, but also improve comfort in survival conditions. For example, filling homemade mattresses, blankets, pillows.
- Rough packing fabrics can be made from leaf fibers, and cellulose can be made from pericolor bristles as a heat-insulating material.
- Stalks with female cobs are used to make walking sticks.
Application infood
Angustifolia can be eaten. A young plant uses leaves located at the base of the stem. This part differs in color due to youth and the fact that it does not participate in the process of photosynthesis. Such leaves taste very delicate and are somewhat similar to cucumber.
Edible in cattail and well-developed roots. For use in raw food, it is better to take white large roots (red - old). They are also suitable for roasting on coals (similar to potatoes). By crushing the roots and roasting them over a fire, you can make a coffee drink. Even flour can be made from them for baking bread!
Useful properties
People don't even know how useful this plant is. Angustifolia cattail contains a lot of starch and sugar, and therefore carbohydrates necessary to maintain energy in the body. There is a lot of fiber in it, there are proteins, vitamins (especially C) and fats. Cattail is an excellent food for physical fatigue, anemia, beriberi. Its rhizome contains about 15% starch and about 2% protein. Caucasians make flour out of it and eat it in a baked form, and pickle young shoots (flowering ones).
Cattail is also useful in folk medicine, in which almost all parts of the plant are used. Crushed leaves can be used externally as a hemostatic, antiseptic and wound healing agent. A decoction of the roots is an excellent remedy for scurvy.
In conclusion, it should be noted that cattail cattail is widelyused by gardeners in the design of reservoirs located in parks and gardens. It looks impressive both in group and in single plantings. In large reservoirs, cattail is used to decorate shallow water. Moreover, larger plants are used in landscaping rather large reservoirs, and small cattails are used for small streams and ponds. This plant looks great next to the rushes, reeds, calla and susak. And cut cattail is good for dry bouquets.
