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habit (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
very long, strap-like, leaves (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
elongated flower clusters and immature seed-head (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
close-up of flower clusters, with no gap between the male flowers, on top, and the female flowers, on the bottom (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
close-up of leaves, old male flowers and female flowers (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
close-up of chestnut-brown immature fruit (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
mature seed-heads releasing their seeds (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
close-up of mature seed-head (Photo: Chris Gardiner)
close-up of fluffy seeds (Photo: Chris Gardiner)
habit of the very similar narrow-leaved cumbungi, Typha domingensis (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
comparison of the narrower seed-head of narrow-leaved cumbungi (Typha domingensis), on the left, and the broader seed-head of broad-leaved cumbungi (Typha orientalis), on the right (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
Scientific Name
Typha orientalis C. Presl
Synonyms
Typha angustifolia L. (misapplied)Typha angustifolia L. subsp. muelleri (Rohrb.) Graebn.Typha angustifolia L. var. brownii (Kunth) Kronfeldt (misapplied)Typha muelleri Rohrb.Typha shuttleworthii Sond. & W.D.J. Koch (misapplied)
Family
Typhaceae
Common Names
Asian bulrush, broad leaf cumbungi, broad-leaf cumbungi, broadleaf cumbungi, broad-leaved cumbungi, bull rush, bull-rush, bullrush, bulrush, cumbungi, oriental bulrush, raupo, raupo bullrush
Origin
Native to eastern and south-eastern Asia (i.e. eastern Russia, China, Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines and Papua New Guinea), Australia and New Zealand.
In Australia, broad-leaved cumbungi (Typha orientalis) is found growing naturally in coastal and sub-coastal districts in the northern, eastern and south-eastern parts of the country. It is common and widespread in the northern parts of the Northern Territory, northern and eastern Queensland, eastern New South Wales, the ACT, Victoria, Tasmania and south-eastern South Australia). Also native to Norfolk Island.
Naturalised Distribution
Widely naturalised in south-western Western Australia.
Notes
Broad-leaved cumbungi (Typha orientalis) is regarded as an environmental weed in south-western Western Australia.