PlantHere

Plant profile · Austin & Hill Country

Southern Cattail

Typha domingensis
native · Hill Country

Southern Cattail is a perennial wildflower native to the Texas Hill Country that grows 8–12 ft tall and 1 ft wide. It wants full sun or part shade and low water. Blooms brown in spring and summer. Good for aquatic wildlife, bees, birds and butterflies.

Wet ground only. A wetland plant: it needs standing water or saturated soil — a pond edge, creek bank or rain garden, not a dry upland bed.

Will it grow in your yard?

Enter your ZIP. The finder checks Southern Cattail against your microclimate, then ranks it against your sun, your watering and deer pressure.

The facts

5 sources
Type
Perennial wildflower
Sun
Full sun to part shade (4–8 hrs of direct sun)
Water
Low
Height
8–12 ft
Spread
1 ft
Bloom
Spring, Summer · brown
Foliage
Deciduous or dies back in winter
Soil
Recorded on loam, moist, rich
Wildlife
Supports aquatic wildlife, bees, birds and butterflies

Where it grows

Recorded in these EPA Level IV ecoregions in the Austin and Hill Country launch area:

Balcones CanyonlandsLlano UpliftEdwards Plateau WoodlandNorthern Blackland PrairieFloodplains and Low TerracesLimestone Cut PlainSan Antonio Prairie

86 occurrence records in Central Texas (GBIF).

Can you buy it?

Also grows here — hard to find. Native and recorded growing in Central Texas, but not on the grower stock lists we read. Sourcing varies: some are stocked widely, others you will have to hunt for.