Before you take on the table consider the words of a source that I have come to appreciate. He says that when he is looking for the hybrid he looks in highly disturbed areas for a plant 6 feet or taller with a gap of a half inch or so between the male and female spikes. The narrow leaf parent, that you might confuse with the hybrid, is usually smaller than eye level (about 5 1/2 feet) and the space between the two spikes is several inches.
The table below is pieced together with information from several sources—use it with caution.
| Comparison of Typha angustifolia ,Typha latifolia, and the hybrid Typha X glauca | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Typha feature | Typha angustifolia | Typha latifolia | Typha X glauca [IBPS]-intermediate between parent species |
| plant height | 0.75-1.5 m | 1-2.7 m |
2-3.5 m |
| leaf characteristics | leaves not glaucus, longest leaves noticeably longer than floral stem, back of leaves convex width less than 10 mm |
young leaves usually glaucus, leaf height similar to height of floral stem, widest leaf more than 10 mm wide. distal half of leaves flat |
leaves probably glaucus leaf length - [IBPS] leaf width 7 to 10 mm back of leaves convex |
| spikelet separation | large separation, more the 2 cm, usually much more |
little or no separation, less than 2 cm, |
small separation, usually 19 - 25 mm |
| pistillate spikelet surface magnification 10x |
develops from green to reddish-brown, surface is covered before flowering by bracteole blades, and after flowering by linear stigma for a period, both are present |
develops from green to dark-brown, bracteole blades not present, surface is covered by overlapping tongue shaped stigma which develop from hyaline to green to brown to black |
[IBPS]
stigma are linear lanceolate which is to say, they are thicker than those of the narrowleaf parent and less dilated than those of the broadleaf parent. Some experts find this the easiest distinction to make between these plants. |
| pistillate spikelet features magnification 10x |
After flowering the carpodia in the pistillate spikelets are flat topped, green, and visible on the surface as green spaces among the brown linear stigma. | carpodia are usually transparent, round topped and buried within the white hairs of the pistillate spike. They are not visible on the surface. | The length of the pistillate spike is sometimes greater than 16 cm long; this is rarely the case for either parent. |
| pollen grains magnification 400x |
monads | tetrads | mostly monads - sometimes including a mix of tetrads, triads, diads |
The sources of the information in the table include: Gray's Manual of Botany (Fernald 8th ed.), Plants of the Chicago Region (Swink & Wilhelm 4th ed.) and personal communications and recollections.
The literature on Typha species and hybrids is abundant but much of it has not yet (as of 2012) found its way on to the web. Three references that are often quoted are: Hotchkiss & Dozier (1949), Fassett & Calhoun (1952), and Smith (1967).