Handbook of Nature-Study · Lesson CXXXIV · Topic 20: Summer wildflowers, climbers and water plants
134. The cat-tail
Goal: Your child explains where cat-tails grow, how their leaves stand up to the wind, and how wind and water carry their pollen and seeds.
You'll need
- Nature notebook, pencil and colored pencils
- A hand lens (magnifying glass)
- Rubber boots
- A ruler
What's in the book
A Teacher's Story with a photograph of cat-tails in blossom and the lesson: Leading thought, Method and nine questions, with a photograph of cat-tails sending off their seed balloons.
The lesson, step by step
When and where
Cat-tails grow in marshes and along the edges of ponds and ditches, where the soil is wet. Comstock says to study the flowers in the last half of June and the seeds in fall or winter.
Water safety: an adult stays right beside children at any pond or stream. Stay on the bank, a dock or solid ground; pond bottoms are soft and can be deeper than they look.
The leading thought
The cat-tail is adapted to places where the soil is wet but not under water; its pollen is scattered by the wind, and its seeds are scattered by wind and water. Its leaves and stalks are not injured nor broken by the wind.
Where do they grow?
Where are the cat-tails found? Is the land on which they grow under water all the year?
How wide a strip do the cat-tails cover, where you have found them?
Strong leaves
Pull off one leaf (cat-tails are very common).
Does each leaf completely encircle the stalk at its base?
Does the cat-tail leaf break or tear along its edges easily? Does the wind injure any part of the leaf?
Try to tear it across, then along its length.
The flowers
Study the cat-tail flowers the last half of June. Note the part that will develop into the cat's tail. Describe the part above it. Can you see where the pollen comes from?
The top spike makes pollen and withers; the brown “tail” below is packed with tiny seed-making flowers.
Seeds
In fall or winter, pull a pinch of fluff from an old cat-tail, outside. Comstock warns:
When studying the seeds, it is well to be careful, or the schoolroom and the pupils will be clothed with the pappus for weeks.
Will the cat-tail seed balloons float?
How do the cat-tails help to build up land and make narrower ponds and streams?
Nature notebook
Draw a cat-tail stalk in June with the pollen spike above the green tail, and the same stalk in winter with fluff bursting out.
Afterwards
Drop a few seeds with their fluff on a bowl of water and see if they float, as Comstock asks.
Answers to the book's problems
The leaves wrap around the stalk at the base and are stiff there; they have long ribs and air spaces so they bend without breaking. Wind carries the pollen. Dead cat-tails build up a mat that slowly fills in shallow water, turning it into land.
Worked out for this site from the scan. If a number in your copy differs, trust the book.