This plant is very common, indeed. To all people on the Coastal Plain, it is seen daily wherever one looks; ditches, fresh water marsh, brackish marsh and undisturbed oxbows. So, is there anything redeeming about this widespread semi-aquatic plant? You bet!

First, look closely at the picture and you'll see that just above the large brown cylinder is a smaller cylinder -- this contains the male flowers. The larger cylinder contains the female flowers. The plant is an important source of food for marsh birds and muskrats; rodents eat the rootstock, thus creating an open pool for other life forms. The plant being primarily starch and edible, the cylinder was ground into meal by Indians and its nutritional value was untold. This food source was passed on to the early settlers. The young shoots were eaten like asparagus and the flower spikes were boiled and nibbled like corn-on-the-cob.

The rootstock sprouts were used in a garden salad or boiled and eaten as greens. And, if all this isn't redeeming enough, consider that the stalk of the plant was dried, sharpened and use as arrow shafts by Indians.

If its nutritional value isn't enough, think of its many uses in dried flower arrangements - priceless! However, a word of caution -- the column should be dipped in clear varnish or polyurethane after drying or the ripened flowers will burst open allowing tufts of fluff to fall.

The flowering season of Common Cat-Tail begins in early summer. When maturity and pollination has been achieved, nature tells the large brown column to start developing its seeds.