Cattails and Bulrushes: Versatile and Edible Wild Plants

Cattails are plants that love growing in marshy soil and near lakes, ponds, ditches, streams, and rivers. Depending on where they are found, they are sometimes called bulrushes and these plants are widely spread in Europe, Asia, Africa, North and South America and Australia. Cattails are also edible and nutritious. In fact, they are quite versatile.

Cattail description

These plants are common enough that many people have seen them without knowing what they are. The roots are tubers that usually grow submerged, anchored in mud. From these, leaves grow. The leaves are flat, long and narrow, rather like those of grass, but much larger. From the center of the leaves emerges the flower spike. Atop of this, the flower forms; at first green and hard, then turning golden or brown as it ripens. Above the ripened flowers, the spike continues with fluffier material. Each flower spike contains both male and female parts.

Cattails as life preservers

In World War I and even before, the light, dense material of the flower was used to fill flotation devices. This is because the material floats readily on water, only gradually becoming waterlogged. Once it is saturated, it will sink. However, if the fluff is dried out, it again becomes lighter than water. In emergency situations, a person can make their own flotation devices by filling bags with the cattail ‘fluff’.

Cattails as furniture

The leaves of cattails are very fibrous and tough. They can be and have been used to weave into mats and to make the backing, webbing, and seats of chairs. Larger mats can be made that work well as sleeping mats. Native Americans also cut the leaves lengthwise into strips and braided them into ropes.

Cattails as food

The green, unripe flower on the flower spike is an excellent vegetable. It can be boiled and eaten like corn on the cob, using butter and a bit of salt for seasoning. The flavor is light and slightly nutty.

The very young leaves and emerging flower spike can also be boiled or baked for enjoyable flavored greens that are high in vitamin C, calcium, manganese, magnesium, potassium, phosphorus, and fiber. The shoots are fantastic for dieters and diabetics because they are very low in calories and have a glycemic load index of 0.

Boiled tubers

Cattail roots can be washed, chopped and fried or boiled, much like potatoes can be. The flavor is mild and the amount of starch the roots contains is similar to the amount found in the same amount of rice.

Native Americans and others have a long history of boiling the tubers in water and mashing them, stirring the slurry well, then filtering out the roots. The milky fluid that is left behind is then cooked until the water has evaporated, leaving behind a very fine starchy flour. The flour can be used like wheat flour, though it is lighter in flavor and is gluten-free. The roots and flour are high enough in carbohydrates to help a person sustain themselves in emergency situations.

The roots aren’t difficult to get to, usually, as long as the water isn’t deep. They tend to be surprisingly well anchored but can be pried up or dug out. This does very little harm to an established patch of cattails, either, because small sections of the tuber that break off will usually grow into a new plant. Harvesting the roots normally results in a thicker crop the following year.

Cattail pollen

The pollen is also good for eating. This is collected with the flowers have turned brown. By putting a paper bag over the flower, bending the flower so the bag is upright and shaking the flower spike, a surprising amount of pollen can be collected off of every flower spike.

This can be used as a flour substitute or in addition to flour. For instance, delightful pancakes can be made by substituting half of the flour the recipe calls for with cattail pollen. The pancakes turn out a beautiful golden color and the flavor is unique, yet delicious.

Cattails have many uses and the ripened flowers can even be fed to livestock. The plants produce a surprising amount of food per plant and a huge number of cattails can grow in a small area. In fact, cattails are capable of outproducing corn, acre for acre. This is a wonderful survival food to know about and many cultures have used the plant as a staple part of their diets. They aren’t even difficult to identify.

If you want to learn about emergency foods or even if you’d like to try some edible wild plants, cattails are one of the first plants to learn about. That is especially true since the plant is useful for more than just food. The fact is that every part of the cattail can be used.