A Little Bit More
Cattails are an extremely common plant across most of North America and almost everyone who has traveled outside a city, has probably seen them. Although their leaves are not easy to identify, their reproductive structure, called a catkin, is diagnostic. Cattails are a plant of wet places, whether growing out of standing water, in a roadside ditch, or wet, muddy ground.
Historically, Native Americans regularly used this plant as a food source although the settlers apparently didn’t. The roots have more starch than potatoes and more protein than rice. Young shoots are especially tasty and the pollen can be added to foods for additional protein. And the plant has also been an excellent source of building materials for furniture and mats. The fluff of the seed heads also was used as padding, bedding, and insulation.
Cattails have two ways of reproduction - either by seeds or by the extension of rhizomes (underground roots). The cattail seed heads produce enormous numbers of minute seeds that are dispersed slowly as the head breaks down over the winter and into spring. These seeds travel easily on the breeze and can start new colonies of plants if they land in suitable habitat. Established plants also extend rhizomes underground, sending up new shoots and expanding the number and area of a cattail’s growth.
Activities
Science – Soak It
Objectives: Close look at seed germination
Materials: Cattail seed head (or a portion of), shallow pan, water
Cattails are common enough that they’re even found growing in wet areas of city parks. Since this plant can reproduce by both seeds and vegetative growth, removing a seed head from a cluster of cattails really won’t do any harm.
Any time in late summer through fall and winter into early spring, you can collect cattail seed head for this activity. You’ll only need one head so don’t be greedy in an area where there aren’t lots of cattails. If you want, you can just grab a pinch of seeds from an old head too rather than have the entire seed head – you’ll have plenty of seeds to work with.
I have not followed this activity to a conclusion yet so am not positive about results. I have found cattail heads found lying on wet soil that have sprouted hundreds of tiny plants so I believe this activity will work. I did set this activity up as stated below but only had three days to observe (still no sprouts) before putting this online. Let’s hope it works as I suspect it will!
1. Place the cattail in a shallow pan and add water to cover the lower half of the seed head. If only using a handful of seeds, place them in the shallow pan and flood
2. Your biggest problem is going to be to keep the seeds wet – they will repel water so you’ll need to tamp them down into the water a bit. If you have a water spritzer, this works well to better wet the seeds
3. Keep the tray at room temperature and check daily for evaporation – water as needed. To reduce quick evaporation, you may want to cover lightly with a plastic bag
4. After a time (it may take well over a week or more) you should begin to see signs of green as the seeds, at least a few, begin to sprout
At this point you can either continue to watch as the seeds sprout, recognizing that on the head they’ll be very crowded. Or you can remove some of the sprouts and gently plant in pots of very wet soil and watch their continued growth. If you have a wet area nearby, you may even want to plant them outside.
NOTE: I've had inconsistent results from doing this myself so if your first try doesn't work, it probably isn't you or your technique.
Key Concepts
Food Webs /Food Pyramids, Growth and Development, Identification, Life Cycles, Structures and Functions
Questions
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