Bulrush

This tall, erect, deciduous aquatic plant has broad, lance-shaped, grey-green leaves and is known as the Bulrush Typha latifolia. It flowers in June and July, and the long 'poker-like' brown seed head has no gap in it between the male and female parts. The seed heads begin to break up in the autumn, and then become downy as in the photograph above, taken on 19/02/13. These seed heads are then dispersed by the wind.
Bulrush is invasive in shallow water and it should only be grown in ponds where deep water will limit its spread. This plant is also known as reedmace.

Blue tits and more specialist seed-eating birds are often attracted to the large flower-heads, and the stems can harbour the larvae of the Bulrush Wainscott moth Nonagrea typhae, Webb’s moth Archanara sparganii and Rush Wainscot moth Archanara algae. Several species of bug and beetle overwinter in the dead leaf sheaths.