Cattails

Bismillah..

somehow drawn with cattails today..

there's some ethereal beauty in it and I can't put my finger into it


it's so common and yet..
why is it so common?
what exactly is it's purpose?
just something that grew in the ditches, or to create a fairy-like grassland?
Allah SWT must've created it for something, you know, practical, useful..other than as decorations on this earth..

so I asked Mr.Google and this is what I got. 
enjoy! :)

: Common Cattail :

(Typha Latifolia)

Common cattails are a familiar sight along the shore of any marsh, pond, lake, or river. They can even be found in ditches.

Cattails are tall, stiff plants, growing almost ten feet tall. The leaves look like giant blades of grass, about one inch wide. The flower has two parts; a brown cylinder (the female part), and a yellow spike (the male part).

Cattails are usually found in a dense stand (many together).

Common cattails have roots that creep, called Rhizomes. Rhizomes grow new shoots quickly. This creates the thick stands which are great cover for the many animals which live among them.

Muskrats eat Common Cattails and use them to build their houses. White-tailed Deer, Racoons, Eastern Cottontails, and Turkey all use cattails as cover. Many insects eat and live on them.

Common Cattails flower from May to July. In early fall, the brown flower head pops open, letting its fluffy seeds emerge. These seeds are carried by wind or water to new places.

Many species of birds use the fluff to line their nests.

Relationships in nature:

Animals Using as Food Source	Animals Using as Shelter	Associations With Other Plants	OTHER
Muskrat	Red-winged Blackbird	Yellow Pond Lily	Tussock Sedge C
Canada Goose	Muskrat	Common Duckweed	Beaver Mu
Stagnant Pond Snail	Canada Goose	Pickerelweed	Downy Woodpecker FP
	Mallard	Common Reed	Wild Rice EC
	White-tailed Deer	Tussock Sedge
	Raccoon	Green Algae
	Bullfrog	Lizard's Tail
	Wild Turkey	Long-leaf Pondweed
	Golden Shiner	Greater Bladderwort
	Eastern Painted Turtle	Spotted Joe-pye Weed
	American Dog Tick	Marsh Bulrush
	American Toad	Arrow Arum
	Green Darner	Swamp Rose Mallow
	Freshwater Leech	Wild Rice
	Eastern Newt
	Northern Water Snake
	Large Diving Beetle
	Stagnant Pond Snail
	Paramecium
	Green Darner

Relationships with humans:

All parts of the cattail plant are edible. In autumn, people harvest their roots as a food. They can either roast or boil it and eat it. American Indians prepared the different parts in many ways. Abenaki Indians extract the juice from the Rhizomes. They also eat raw or pickled sprouts. Paiute Indians eats almost every part of the plant includes flowers stalks, pre-pollen, raw or boiled or steamed. Flower stalks tastes like olives and artichokes.


Starch grains (from cattails) have been found on grinding stones widely across Europe from 30,000 BC suggesting that Typha plants were widely used Upper Paleolithic food. (come everybody, say it with me! uuuUUUUUUUUUU~ o_O)


It is also used as household goods. e.g. It is used at thatch for roofs of homes. Also, the leaves of Common Cattail are used to weave baskets, chair seats, and mats. Archaeologists have excavated cattail mats over 10,000 years old from Nevada cave. It can also be made into greenish brown paper. 

People sometimes plant cattails along the shores of water to prevent erosion. They're even been planted along the Nile river to reduce soil salinity.

The fluffy seeds are used as insulation for pillows and coats. When using Cattails for pillow stuffing, dense batting material is used, as the fluff may cause a skin reaction.

An adhesive (glue) can be made from the stems.

The pollen is sometimes used in fireworks, as the pollen is easily burn and burst.
It is also used for medical purposes. When people gets wounded, it is good to put rhizomes on the wound because it works as a salve and stops the bleeding. Some Northern Indians use leaves and roots to make tea for treating stomachache. Sioux Indians mix cattail fruit and coyote fat to treat smallpox sores. O_O 

SCIENTIFIC CLASSIFICATION

KINGDOM Plant DIVISION Magnoliophyta CLASS Liliopsida ORDER Typhales FAMILY Typhaceae GENUS Typha SPECIES Typha latifolia

weird, huh?
and yet seriously tempted to eat it..
anyone wants cattail soup? ;D

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