Cattails Flowering – Welcome to a photographic journey through the fields, woods and marshes of New England
Many of the images and much of the information in this blog can be found in my book, Naturally Curious, which is being published this fall.
CATTAIILS FLOWERING
While cattails reproduce vegetatively, forming clones by sending up shoots off their creeping rhizomes, or horizontal stems, they also reproduce sexually, developing seeds. Separate male and female catttail flowers form in cylindrical spikes located at the tip of a stalk, with the female flower located directly below the male. Timing is such that the male flowers tend to mature and produce pollen (which rains down on the female flower below) sooner than the females flowers are fully developed and receptive to it, thus discouraging self-pollination. However, the timing of their maturity often overlaps, so that most cattail flowers are self-pollinated (resulting in only a 50% seed success rate). Approximately 220,000 seeds per spike are produced. The male flower spike dies soon after producing clouds of pollen, leaving the seed-laden, sausage-like female spike below. Each seed has tiny hair-like appendages which aid in its dispersal. These hairs form on the outside of the spike, giving it a felt-like surface.
Naturally Curious with Mary Holland 
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