♪ [upbeat music]
(Bruce) Hello, my name is Bruce Doran.
I'm one of the staff scientists that works on the third floor.
And what I wanted to do today is to show you a plant
that you probably have seen in ditches,
along lakes and rivers,
and also in wetlands.
A plant that you probably haven't thought of too much,
the cattail.
[gentle music]
I'm actually at Lilly Creek right now.
And what I want to do is to show you this plant,
to show you how incredible they are.
And hopefully you will appreciate this plant next time you see them.
So, first thing I need to do is actually dig up a cattail.
So I'm going to go to Lilly Creek
and I'm going to dig up a cattail
to show you all the features up close.
So you've already seen these plants quite often along ditches and wetlands,
and lakes and rivers.
This is a cattail.
And cattails are quite special in their features
that allow them to live in really wet areas.
One thing that's quite neat is this brown part.
That is the part that people recognize, that they call "the cattail".
This brown part actually has the seeds in it.
In fact, in the spring, there's two parts.
There's a green part on the bottom
and a green part on the top.
Essentially, this is the flower of the plant.
And this brown part is actually the female flower that's been fertilized.
And inside of it,
this is where the seeds are going to be produced.
So it's still kind of hard right now.
But as winter approaches, these seeds will then be released.
Will be released by the wind.
And the seeds will then drop in a wet area
where cattails will then grow.
The next part is this part right here.
It's called the shoot.
And this shoot is actually above the water surface,
also, with the flower.
This shoot has kind of like a stem.
It's not a real stem.
But it also has the leaves,
that just like any other plant,
this is where photosynthesis occurs.
And underneath the water, we actually have roots.
And this structure right here that comes out,
it's actually called the rhizome.
It's kind of like a modified root.
And this rhizome is quite special.
Because this rhizome will be able to extend to the side,
and we can see it coming out here.
And it will help produce other cattails.
So what's really neat about cattails,
if you've ever gone to a marsh,
sometimes when you pull on one cattail,
you'll notice that the whole cattail bed moves.
And this is because they're all interconnected with these rhizomes.
And it's a method for the cattails to be able to reproduce asexually,
without the use of the seeds.
So cattails can really propagate very, very quickly as time goes on.
Now, one thing about plants,
let's say you take a tree or any other plant that you find on land,
if you submerge that plant in water,
what happens is, after a while, the roots will die.
The roots need oxygen.
And they will get that oxygen from the air that diffuses through the ground
and the roots will get that oxygen.
So if you take a plant that's a terrestrial plant,
and you put it in water, it will die.
The roots will start to decompose and die.
Not, with cattails.
Cattails have special adaptations
to help bring air
from the upper portions of the cattail
to the roots, the rhizomes, of the cattail.
And it's really neat.
In fact, if you cut a cattail leaf, ok?
If you cut a cattail leaf,
you can see holes or channels that are called D-cells.
And D-cells provide rigidity to the leaf,
but also allow air and oxygen to go down the leaf,
all the way down to the rhizome.
In fact, if you cut the shoot of a cattail,
you will see these little air holes,
they're called aerenchyma,
that again, allow the air to go from the leaf all the way to the rhizomes.
And you see those aerenchyma in rhizomes.
So it's really, really neat‚
this plant can survive in the water
because it can, not necessarily pump,
but transport air and oxygen all the way down to the rhizome,
where the rhizome will use that oxygen for their own metabolism.
So because of that, cattails can survive in submerged,
or waterlogged areas.
So a lot of people ask me, "Why are cattails important?
Why should we care about cattails?"
Well, cattails are very important wetland plants,
and plants that we'll find along lakes and rivers,
for several reasons.
First of all, cattails provide homes and habitats for many animals.
In fact, birds will nest in it.
Insects will go underneath the roots.
In fact, cattail roots are a good hiding place for baby fish,
for them to hide.
So a very good habitat.
Animals can actually eat the rhizome.
In fact, muskrats will eat the rhizomes exclusively
because they're packed with starch,
which is a form of sugar.
So they are an important food source.
Cattails are also very important
because along the edges of lakes and rivers,
they help prevent bank erosion.
And they also prevent silt from entering from upland regions into the lake.
And in fact, also cattails are very effective
at getting rid of organic pollution that enters water.
So if there's nitrates and phosphate that's getting in the water,
they will absorb it.
And also because cattails allow air and oxygen to go to the roots,
they essentially get air and oxygen to go into the water.
Adds more air and oxygen in the water,
helps with decomposition,
helps to get rid of organic pollution.
Also, cattails when you actually touch the roots,
they're very, very spongy.
So if you have a massive rain event,
they also act like sponges and prevent flooding events.
So cattails are very, very important.
Not just for the animals and the plants that live in wetlands.
But also for humans.