What is it Wednesday: January 20, 2021

 

Can you identify what's in this photo?

 

 

Each Wednesday morning 

on Camp Lutherlyn's Facebook page

 the Lutherlyn Environmental Education Program posts a photo. 

 

 

Readers have all morning and afternoon 

to make their best guess about what the photo is. 

 

Around 6 pm LEEP provides the answer and a brief explanation.

 

 

Each week's What is it Wednesday post 

will also be posted on the Nature of Lutherlyn blog, 

 after it is posted on Facebook,

sometimes with additional bonus information. 

 

In addition to bringing you current editions of What is it Wednesday 

on the Nature of Lutherlyn blog, 

we will be reposting old editions,

creating a What is it Wednesday archive. 

 

This photo was posted as a What is it Wednesday on

January 20, 2021. 

 

 

 

And the answer is....

 

This is a closeup of cattails. 

The “fluff” of cattails is packed into the brown cylinders on top of the stalks, and is released by the wind. Like the fluff of dandelions, the fluff of cattails is its seeds, being dispersed by the wind.

Cattails grow in wetland areas and along the edges of ponds and lakes, and in addition to spreading by their numerous wind-blown seeds, they also spread by rhizomes (horizontal root-like underground stalks), creating large interconnected stands.

Cattails are remarkable plants. The hollow spongy tissues in the stalks and leaves (called aerenchyma) transfer oxygen to the parts of the plants submerged in water. The young shoots, rhizomes, green flower spikes, and pollen can be eaten, and the leaves woven into mats, baskets, and other objects. They provide food for wetland animals, including muskrats. Cattails are excellent at filtering pollution out of the water they grow in – they are used in mine drainage treatment wetlands at abandoned coal mines, including the one at Lutherlyn.  (Plants growing in polluted water do accumulate the pollutants in the fibers of the plant, and should not be eaten). And they have a striking beauty on a winter day against a blue sky. 

 

Like and follow Camp Lutherlyn on Facebook, to see What is it Wednesday posts when they come out and have the opportunity to share your guesses in the comments!