4-8’ tall.

Broad blade-shaped leaves.

Small yellow male flowers bloom in spring just above the female flowering spike, which is brown and dense and appears fuzzy, like a cat’s tail.

The flowering spike turns into a downy white mass of seeds in autumn.

Provides nesting sites for redwinged blackbirds, ducks and geese.

The seeds are eaten by finches.

Salt tolerant.

US native of marshes, ponds and lake edges, stream banks and swamps.