Seasonal Wild Flowers

Latin name

Typha angustifolia

Other names

Lesser Reedmace

Family

Typhaceae

Flowering season

June to August

English distribution

It is found scattered throughout the country, but is less

common than Bulrush.

For a map see the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland –

Lesser Bulrush

Habitat

It grows in shallow water, but deeper than Bulrush, at the

edge of freshwater bodies.

Description

Lesser Bulrush is a native, rhizomatous, perennial herb

growing up to 3m.

Flowers are massed together in an elongated, cylindrical

terminal spike.

Male flowers are in a spike a few cm above the female

spike. This gap is missing in Bulrush.

Male flowers have between 1 and 5 stamens. After

flowering male spikes wither.

Female flowers have 1 ovule, 1 style and 1 linear stigma.

The female spike is persistent, up to 25mm wide and turns

from green to dark brown. They are narrower and paler

than in Bulrush.

The fruit is a small capsule.

The female spike disintegrates over the autumn and winter.

Leaves are long, sometimes longer than the flower stems,

and paler and narrower than in Bulrush at up to 6mm

across.