Straight-backed sentinels in high crowned busbies
rise in crowded companies
from river bank and marsh.
Grown old and fluffed with a thousand florets
gone to seed, the heads make fine torches
(“Cattails,” Prentice and Sargent 1973)
Until recent times, Typha was the sole genus of Typhaceae, the cattail family. Now the family has been extended to include Sparganium, the burreeds. The 15 species of Typha are prevalent and bothersome emergent aquatic weeds with a worldwide distribution (Heywood 1993; Hickman 1993). The genus Typha was erected in 1753 by Carolus Linnaeus in his Genera Plantarum.