A brown cigar-shaped head that stands atop a very long, stout stalk. "Cigars", also called candlewicks, consist of thousands of tiny developing seeds. Cattails stand erect and vary between 1.5 to 3 metres tall. Their habitat is open wet areas, wet thickets, swamps, ditches, and moist fields. Mi’kmaq people historically utilized cattails as a form of flour in cooking by pounding the root. Young shoots can also be boiled and are edible.