GRANDPA
CATTAIL--
Max and I were enjoying a sun drenched hike around the pond one recent day when the image of the cattail jumped into my camera.
We decided this one must be a grandpa with its glowing white whiskers. In a botanical sense it is. This is the age when the sausage-like flower disintegrates into dense, cottony fluff from which the seeds disperse into the wind.
Human grandpas sometimes sense a similar disintegration at this stage of the life cycle—don’t we, grandpas?
Typha, as the plant genus is known, exists mostly in the Northern Hemisphere and is known to the British as bullrush.
The cattail plant has a wide variety of parts that are edible by humans. The rhizomes (roots) are a pleasant, nutritious and energy-rich food source; or so they say.
The disintegrating heads are used by some birds to line their nests. An Indian name for Typha meant, “Fruit for papoose’s bed.”
The plant also can be used as a source of ethanol in fuel.
It spreads rapidly around ponds and lakes and is an important part of the process of open water bodies being converted to vegetated marshland and eventually dry land.
The cattail plant should not be confused with the phrase cat o’ nine tail which is a type of multi-tailed (nine to be exact) whipping device that originated as an implement for severe physical punishment in the British army and navy.
Ain’t it amazing what you sometimes learn when you stumble over a bit of visual curiosity.
CATTAIL--
Max and I were enjoying a sun drenched hike around the pond one recent day when the image of the cattail jumped into my camera.
We decided this one must be a grandpa with its glowing white whiskers. In a botanical sense it is. This is the age when the sausage-like flower disintegrates into dense, cottony fluff from which the seeds disperse into the wind.
Human grandpas sometimes sense a similar disintegration at this stage of the life cycle—don’t we, grandpas?
Typha, as the plant genus is known, exists mostly in the Northern Hemisphere and is known to the British as bullrush.
The cattail plant has a wide variety of parts that are edible by humans. The rhizomes (roots) are a pleasant, nutritious and energy-rich food source; or so they say.
The disintegrating heads are used by some birds to line their nests. An Indian name for Typha meant, “Fruit for papoose’s bed.”
The plant also can be used as a source of ethanol in fuel.
It spreads rapidly around ponds and lakes and is an important part of the process of open water bodies being converted to vegetated marshland and eventually dry land.
The cattail plant should not be confused with the phrase cat o’ nine tail which is a type of multi-tailed (nine to be exact) whipping device that originated as an implement for severe physical punishment in the British army and navy.
Ain’t it amazing what you sometimes learn when you stumble over a bit of visual curiosity.
2 comments:
Thanks for the beautiful photo and the lesson. These always make me think of my parents... (both still living),but who instilled a love of nature in me. I can feel the softness going up with the grain and the coarseness doing down against the grain in your photo. My we all age so gracefully.
Happy day to you!
Hi Jean:
Thanks millions and Happy day to you too. I'm sure curious about who and where you might be. Care to contact me by email?
Click "View my Complete Profile" under the photo on the right side of the blog header then in the "Contact" box that appears, click the email link. I'd really appreciate that.
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