Typha
genus of plants
Typha is a genus of about 30 species of monocotyledonous flowering plants in the family Typhaceae. These plants have a variety of common names, in British English bulrush or (mainly historically) reedmace, in American English cattail or punks, in Australia cumbungi or bulrush, in Canada bulrush or cattail, and in New Zealand raupō, bullrush, cattail, or reed.
The genus is largely distributed in the Northern Hemisphere, where it is found in a variety of wetland habitats. Although they can accumulate toxins in polluted areas, many parts of the plant are edible, including the starchy rhizomes.
Description
Typha are aquatic or semiaquatic, rhizomatous, herbaceous, perennial plants growing to 0.8–2.4 m (2+1⁄2–8 ft) in height. The leaves are long and narrow, up to 2.5 cm (1 in) wide, glabrous (hairless), linear, alternate, and mostly basal on a simple, jointless stem that bears the flowering spikes.
The plants are monoecious, with unisexual flowers that develop in dense racemes. 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 it withers once the pollen is shed. Large numbers of tiny female flowers form a dense, sausage-shaped spike on the stem below the male spike.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Typha” as genus of plants. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the science & nature register because the source frames it as genus of plants. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The date and method of observation matter as much as the stated conclusion, especially where classification or consensus has changed. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 8, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q145707. The Library of Congress control number is sh85139143. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
Current terminology should not be projected backward without checking the classification used when the underlying evidence was created. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Typha” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.