A brown sausage-shaped spike on a tall bare stem rises above pale strap-like leaves at the edge of a lake
Bulrush, or great reedmace, Typha latifolia.
Nature · Wildflowers & flowers
Bulrush (great reedmace)
Native · flowers Jul–Aug · lakes, ponds, rivers and marshes
Typha latifolia — Typhaceae
The 'bulrush' of everyday speech is really great reedmace: a tall, strap-leaved wetland plant whose brown, sausage-shaped flower spike sits on top of a bare stalk. The plant that botanists call the true bulrush (Schoenoplectus lacustris) is a quite different, leafless-stemmed club-rush. Great reedmace fills the margins of lakes, ponds, rivers and marshes throughout Britain.
How to spot them
- ▸Dense, dark brown, cylindrical 'poker' or 'sausage' up to about 15 cm long, which is the female part of the flower spike, at the top of a tall stem
- ▸Above it, in July and August, a narrow straw-coloured male spike that later falls away, leaving a bare tip; the two parts touch
- ▸Pale grey-green, flat strap-like leaves 8–20 mm wide, in a tall clump reaching about 2 m (NatureSpot)
- ▸Grows in shallow water and wet ground at lake, pond and river edges and in marshes
- ▸Look-alike: lesser reedmace (Typha angustifolia) has narrower leaves and a visible gap between the male and female parts; the true bulrush has round, leafless green stems
How to know it
Tall strap-leaved marginal plant that most people call by the name that botanists give to a different, round-stemmed club-rush
Great reedmace — the true bulrush is Schoenoplectus lacustris.
Its female flower spike is dark brown, with a straw-coloured male section above it that later drops away
Bulrush (great reedmace).
Distinguished from a relative with narrower leaves by the lack of any gap between its male and female flower parts
Great reedmace versus lesser reedmace (Typha angustifolia).
In autumn its brown sausage-shaped spike breaks up into a cloud of fluffy, wind-blown seed
Bulrush (great reedmace).
Quick-fire facts
- •Family Typhaceae; latifolia means broad-leaved; in North America it is called cattail
- •In popular usage it is 'bulrush'; in botany, great reedmace — the Wildlife Trusts call it 'the archetypal bulrush'
- •The true bulrush, Schoenoplectus lacustris, is a club-rush in the sedge family with round leafless stems
- •NatureSpot: flowers July and August, a tall clump up to 2 m, the female part dark brown, the male straw-coloured
- •Leaves were traditionally used for mats and chair seats
- •Lesser reedmace, Typha angustifolia, has narrower leaves and a gap between male and female flowers
- •Its stems and leaf bases are host to insects such as the bulrush wainscot moth, whose larvae feed inside the stems
- •The brown 'sausage' breaks up into a cloud of fluffy seed
Drill it — 6 cards
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Sources
- The Wildlife Trusts — Great reedmace
- NatureSpot — Bulrush (Typha latifolia)