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Planting
Days to maturity
Seasonal yields
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Plant · P-980
Narrowleaf Cattail
Typha angustifolia
Narrowleaf Cattail is a fast-growing wetland perennial that colonizes pond margins and shallow water with dense rhizome mats, reaching about ten feet tall. Nearly every part is edible - starchy rhizomes, young shoots, immature flower spikes, and protein-rich pollen - and the mature spikes yield fluffy down used for insulation and tinder. Its extensive root system stabilizes wet banks and its stands provide cover for waterfowl.
Record at a glance
Growing profile
- Sun
- Full Sun · Partial Sun
- USDA zone
- USDA 2–11
- Soil
- Sand · Loam · Clay
- Moisture
- Wet
Vertical layer
Aquatic- Soil pH
- 3.7–8.5
- Plant type
- Perennial
- Mature height
- 3–7 ft
- Mature spread
- 3–5 ft
- Plant spacing
- 3.3 ft
- Root type
- Rhizome
- Spread pattern
- Both
Keep exploring
Similar plants
Discover more plants with shared forest layers or growing conditions.
American Lotus
Nelumbo lutea
American lotus yields three separate harvests from one plant: a rhizome that bakes sweet and mealy like sweet potato and stores for months…
Aquatic · USDA 4–10
Blue Flag Iris
Iris versicolor
Blue Flag Iris is a rhizomatous perennial of marshes, pond margins and wet meadows, grown for its blue to violet flowers from May into August…
Aquatic · USDA 3–9
Bulrush
Schoenoplectus acutus
Bulrush is a tall wetland sedge that forms dense rhizome colonies along pond margins, lake edges and slow streams, growing several feet tall…
Aquatic · USDA 3–10
Cattail
Typha latifolia
Cattail is a tall wetland perennial that colonizes the shallow margins of ponds, ditches and marshes, forming dense stands of sword-like…
Aquatic · USDA 3–10
Giant Swamp Taro
Cyrtosperma merkusii
Giant Swamp Taro produces an enormous starchy corm - up to a meter long and 80 kg - grown by holding it in permanently flooded pits in…
Aquatic · USDA 10–12
Lotus
Nelumbo nucifera
Sacred lotus grows from a rhizome buried in pond mud, sending up round leaves well above the waterline and flowers that open for only a few…
Aquatic · USDA 4–10
The deeper layer
Plan what comes next.
- Primary
- Locked ecological function
- Secondary
- Locked ecological function
- Byproduct
- Locked ecological function
Behind the record
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