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| NAS - Nonindigenous Aquatic Species |
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Common Name: Narrow-leaved cattail
Synonyms and Other Names: , lesser reed-mace, nail-rod, small reed-mace, southern reedmace
Taxonomy: available through 
Identification: Erect shoots 150--300 cm, not glaucous; flowering shoots 5--12 mm thick in middle; stems 2--3 mm thick near inflorescence. Leaves: sheath sides membranous, margin broadly clear, summit with membranous auricles which often disintegrate late in season; mucilage glands at sheath-blade transition brown, absent from blade and usually from sheath center near summit; widest blades on shoot 4--12 mm wide when fresh, 3--8 mm when dry; distal blade usually markedly exceeding inflorescence. Inflorescences: staminate spikes separated from pistillate by 1--8(--12) cm of naked axis, ca. as long as pistillate, 1 cm thick in anthesis; staminate scales variable in same spike, straw-colored to medium brown, filiform, simple to bifid or sometimes cuneate and irregularly branched, to 6 ï‚´ 0.1 mm; pistillate spikes in flower when fresh dark brown with whitish stigmas (drying brown), later medium brown, in fruit when fresh as stigmas wear off often greenish due to green carpodia, (4--)6--20 cm ï‚´ 5--6 mm in flower, 13--22 mm in fruit; compound pedicels in fruit peg-like, 0.5--0.7 mm; pistillate bracteole blades forming spike surface before flowering, later exceeded by stigmas and about equaling or slightly exceeded by pistil hairs, very dark to medium brown, much darker than (or sometimes as dark as) stigmas, irregularly spatulate, 0.6 ï‚´ 0.1--0.2 mm, wider than or about as wide as stigmas, apex rounded (to acute). Staminate flowers 4--6 mm; anthers 1.5--2 mm, thecae yellow, apex dark brown; pollen in monads or some in irregular clusters. Pistillate flowers 2 mm in flower, 5--7 mm in fruit; pistil-hair tips medium brown, distinctly swollen at 10--20X; stigmas sometimes deciduous in fruit, in flower erect, elongating, bending to form surface mat, white in flower, drying brownish, later medium brown, narrowly linear-lanceolate, 0.6--1.4 ï‚´ 0.1 mm; carpodia slightly exceeded by and visible among pistil hairs at mature spike surface, green when young and fresh, straw-colored with orange-brown spots when dry, apex nearly truncate. 2n = 30.
Size: to 7 feet
Native Range:
Northern Africa, temperate Asia, Eurasia (GRIN)
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 Alaska |
Hawaii |
Caribbean |
Interactive maps: Continental US, Alaska, Hawaii, Caribbean
Nonindigenous Occurrences:
1st Great Lakes sighting 1880 Lake Ontario.
B.C., Man., N.B., N.S., Ont., P.E.I., Que., Sask.; Ark., Calif., Colo., Conn., Del., Ill., Ind., Iowa, Kans., Ky., Maine, Md., Mass., Mich., Minn., Mo., [Mont.], Nebr., Nev., N.H., N.J., N.Mex., N.Y., N.C., N.Dak., Ohio, Okla., Oreg., Pa., R.I., S.C., S.Dak., Tenn., Vt., Va., Wash., W. Va., Wis., Wyo.
Ecology:
Habitats include marshes, ditches, fens, pond and lake margins, floating bog mats, seacoast estuaries, roadside ditches, irrigation canals, oxbow lakes, and backwater areas of rivers and streams. The preference is full sun, wet conditions, and muddy soil. T. angustifolia is often the dominant plant in a wetland area. It tolerates continuous inundation, seasonal drawdowns, and brackish waters. Where Common Cattail and Narrow Leaf Cattail are found together, they are frequently segregated by water depth, with Common Cattail found in shallow water and Narrow Leaf Cattail in deep water, usually more than 2½' deep. Flowering late spring--summer. Often somewhat brackish or subsaline water or wet soil.
Means of Introduction: Canals. Some workers suggested T. angustifolia was early introduced from Europe into Atlantic Coastal North America and migrated westward (R. L. Stuckey and D. P. Salamon 1987).
Status: Established
Impact of Introduction: Ecologically, this species can be very invasive in disturbed wetlands, where it tends to invade native plant communities when hydrology, salinity, or fertility changes. In this case, they out-compete native species, often becoming monotypic stands of dense cattails. Maintaining water flows into the wetland, reducing nutrient input, and maintaining salinity in tidal marshes will help maintain desirable species composition. If cattails begin to invade, physical removal may be necessary. In recent decades it has expanded its range in many regions and become much more abundant, especially in roadside ditches and other highly disturbed habitats. As it often out-competes many native marsh species to produce very dense, pure stands, and hybridizes with T. latifolia to form the probably even more competitive T. glauca, T. angustifolia and T. glauca should perhaps be classified as noxious weeds in parts of North America.
Remarks: Many members of the public will recognize this species as a cattail; however, they may be less aware of the fact that there are two cattail species in Illinois. Because the characteristics of Narrow-Leaved Cattail and Typha latifolia (Common Cattail) overlap and they sometimes hybridize, it can be difficult to identify a specimen plant in the wild. The hybrid plants are referred to as Typha × glauca (Hybrid Cattail) and it has characteristics of both parents. Generally, Narrow-Leaved Cattail has narrow green leaves (up to ½" across) and pistillate spikes that are up to ¾" across and 1' long. Its pistillate spike and staminate spike are separated from each other by at least ½" (usually a few inches). In contrast, Common Cattail has green to greyish blue leaves that often exceed ½" across and its pistillate spikes are larger in size (often exceeding ¾" across and 1' in length). The pistillate and staminate spikes of Common Cattail are adjacent to each other, or they are separated by a distance of ½" or less.
References
Grace, J.B. 1985. Juvenile vs. adult competitive abilities in plants: size-dependence in cattails (Typha). Ecology 66(5):1630-1638.
Holm, Leroy; Doll, Jerry; Holm, Eric; Pancho, Jaun; Herberger, James. 1997. World weeds: natural histories and distribution. John Wiley & Sons. 1129 pp.
Holm, Leroy; Pancho, Juan V.; Herberger, James P.; Plucknett, Donald L. 1979. A geographical atlas of world weeds. John Wiley & Sons, New York. 391 pp. Flora of North America. 2008. www.eFloras.org
Other Resources:
GLIFWC-Maps
http://www.ct-botanical-society.org/galleries/typhaangu.html
http://www.illinoiswildflowers.info/wetland/plants/nl_cattail.htm
USGS - Wetland Plants and Plant Communities of Minnesota and Wisconsin
USDA/NRCS PLANTS Database
Author: Ling Cao
Contributing Agencies: 
NOAA - GLERL
Revision Date: 12/10/2008 Citation for this information:
Ling Cao. 2009. Typha angustifolia. USGS Nonindigenous Aquatic Species Database, Gainesville, FL.
<http://nas.er.usgs.gov/queries/FactSheet.asp?speciesID=2679> Revision Date: 12/10/2008
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