Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

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Typha domingensis

Common name

Narrow-leaved cumbungi, Cumbungi, Narrow-leaved bulrush, Bulrush,

Family

Typhaceae

Where found

Stream and lake margins, and aquatic. Reasonably salt-tolerant. Western Slopes, tablelands, ACT, and Sydney area. Rare elsewhere.

Notes

Grass-like perennial herb to 4 m tall.  Stems cylindrical. Leaves in 2 rows, each to 200 cm long, 4-20 mm wide, hairless, green or yellowish green, with an open sheath at the base closely encircling the stem. Sheath not auriculate or only the top 1 or 2 leaves with distinctly auriculate sheaths.  Male and female flowers on the same plant.  Flowers cinnamon brown, in cylindrical spikes, the upper spike 150-350 mm long, 5–10 mm in diameter, of male flowers, and the lower spike usually 120-400 mm long, 5–20 mm in diameter, of female flowers. Male and female spikes separated by 5-50 mm.  Individual flowers small, with 0 petals. Flowers spring-autumn.

Difficult to distinguish from Typha orientalis. Accurate differentiation between the two species requires microscopic examination of the female spike.

General Biosecurity Duty all NSW. Always check native vegetation requirements before undertaking control of a weedy native plant.

All native plants on unleased land in the ACT are protected.

PlantNET description:  http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Typha~domingensis (accessed 7 February, 2021)