Restricted plant view
Typha capensis (Rohrb.) N.E.Br.
| This is a robust, perennial, leafy, reed-like aquatic plant which can reach a height of up to three metres. The leaves are hairless, simple, long, bluish grey to green, strap-shaped and with parallel veins. T. capensis has thick, fleshy, creeping rhizomes with erect, long strap-like stems. The stems terminate in dense, distinctive, velvety-brown flower-spikes.The characteristic flower stalk has minute male flowers towards the tip and equally minute female flowers tightly packed into a thick brown mass just below the male part. The inflorescence is a dense spike of closely packed flowers, yellow at first, turning brown later. The fruit is one-seeded, minute and has many hairs which aid wind dispersal. |
References: 1 South African National Biodiversity Institute. (2007). Typha capensis (Rohrb.)N.E.Br. 2 Van Wyk, B-E. and Gericke, N. (2007). People’s plants: a guide to useful plants of southern Africa. Briza, Pretoria. |