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Cattail

RANGE:

Widespread in U.S. and Canada

HABITAT:

Wet soil; shallow, still or slowly moving water

POSITIVE ID:

• Cattail is an emergent aquatic plant 4–9′ tall. Up to 6 long, narrow leaves 1/4–3/4″ wide surround an unbranched, cylindrical stalk.

• In late spring, the yellow pollen-producing male flower spike tops the stalk. The larger female flower spike is below it.

• The female spike resembles a brown hotdog as tiny seeds mature in late summer.

• Rhizomes – finger-thick starch storage organs – run horizontally through muck or sand, often connecting plants.

Common cattail’s hotdog-like seedhead begins ripening to its brown color in July. Filamentous green algae covers the surface of the pond behind the cattail. Neither the blanket moss, as the algae is often called, nor cattails will be found in fast moving streams.

EDIBLE PARTS & PREPARATION:

Separate the young shoot from its base by grasping the leaves together and steadily pulling upwards. The white tip/core is edible raw. Roast rhizomes at the edge of a fire; split open to chew the hot, white, fibrous inner core. After extracting the starchy essence, spit out the wad of fibers. Husk male flower spikes and treat them like corn on the cob. Boil them, butter them, sprinkle a little salt on them, and nibble away. Stir the pollen into pancake batter for yellow, highprotein pancakes. Sharply pointed white lateral buds at the end of rhizomes make a fine cooked vegetable. The brown hotdog part of the cattail provides perfect texture as a vegetarian substitute in a mock barbecued pulled-pork recipe, page 134.