Cattails have found their wind-blown way to the quarry margins.
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| Cattail Corner |
They have steadily enlarged their domain in Cattail Corner with a root mass extending over submerged ledges and engulfing an old beaver lodge.
Cattails are well supplied in their stems, leaves and roots with a spongy tissue that creates air channels to facilitate the exchange of gases with their lower parts growing directly in water, or in hypoxic soils.
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An American Eel foraging in the cattail roots |
The cattail colony provides both a sanctuary and a larder.
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Painted Turtle |
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Green Heron with minnow |
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Cattail Corner bereft of flowers in early August |
Oddly, hardly any of its bottlebrush flower spikes dramatized Cattail Corner this summer, though the foliage has been lush and verdant.
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An adjacent colony in bloom |
At the same time, just down the shoreline, another stand of cattails began taking on a tired look as their flower spikes bloomed prolifically.
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Narrow-leaved cattail, Typha angustifolia |
A close look reveals that this second colony is formed of a different species. Its spikes are separated into two parts, the sausage-shaped, seed-bearing female flowers topped by a less conspicuous array of male flowers, usually with a gap between the floral sexes.
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Common
cattail, Typha latifolia
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A winter rendering |
Cattail Corner inspires imaginative images year round. It gratifies the eye as well as the wildlife it harbors. Hopefully after this sparse flowering season it will return to its typical productivity.
