Cattails have pointed, sword-like leaves emerging from the ground in the spring. The plants can reach 9 feet in height.
Cattails are one of the very few plant species that produces pollen in sufficient quantity that is used as food. Cattail has been eaten in India, China, New Zealand, South Africa, the United States, Canada and many tropical regions around the world.
The immature green flower head can be steamed or baked for 15 minutes and serve it with a sauce such as Spiceberry Butter Sauce.
The pollen provides a protein-rich flour, used for bread, gruel and a thick soup. For the most part the pollen is mixed with water and sometimes with wheat or corn flour.
During the fall or winter months the cattail offers the little horn-shaped sprouts along the roots as a crunchy salad ingredient or snack.
In the late 1940s Leland Marsh, a botanist at Syracuse University showed that cattails rhizomes or roots produced equaled ten times the average yield per acre of potatoes. When flour was produced from the rhizomes, each acre yielded 32 tons, far greater than for wheat, rye or other grains.
Cattail plant
