Typha latifolia



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Intermountain Flora
Plants usually coarse and stout, the stem 1-3 m tall, arising from a stout spreading fleshy rhizome; leaves 12-16 per sterile stem, about equalling the inflorescence, light green, 8-20 mm wide, nearly flat, the leaf sheath cylindrical and open to the base, the scarious upper margin tapering or rarely truncate, not auricled; spike-bearing stem as long as or slightly longer than the leaves, the pistillate and staminate portions contiguous, rarely slightly separated; pistillate spikes dark brown, 10-18 cm long, 1.5-3 cm thick, the flowers without bracts or bract-like hairs but on slender, often hair-like, compound pedicels 1-2 mm long, the stigma medium brown to dark brown, lanceolate to lanceolate-ovate, the surface of the main stem axis appearing minutely pebbled; staminate spikes lighter brown, the stamens on branched filaments, the bracts lacking, the pollen orange or more commonly yellow, in tetrads; fruits ellipsoid, 1 mm long; n = 15.

Cronquist, A., Holmgren, A.H., Holmgren, N.H., Reveal, J.L., and Holmgren, P.K. (1977) "Intermountain Flora" pg. 460-470, vol. 6, The New York Botanical Garden New York.