The Garden Pond Blog

Much hated: bulrush (Typha latifolia)

Its a common piece of advice not to plant ‘invasive’ species like bulrush in a garden pond.

Here’s a typical quote from a source you would expect to trust:

‘Don’t plant reeds or reedmace (bulrushes) in a small garden pond – they are very invasive.’

There’s a couple of things wrong with this advice:

1. In a small pond, say the size of my garden pond, its easy to keep control of plants. Just hoik a bit out now and again if you don’t like them.

2. It ignores the habitat value of emergent plants, including bulrush. Bulrush is home to a variety of animals – like those shown below – and it provides habitat under the water.

Now that bulrush has come along in my pond on its own without needing to be added – I’m very pleased! And you can also try branched bur-reed, the various kinds of rushes (Juncus species), reed canary-grass and reed sweet-grass as well (if you’ve got room).

The story is different outside of gardens: bulrush is the one wetland plant that is spreading generally – its happy in our modern polluted and disturbed world, so I would try to stop it getting established in a new pond out in the countryside at first, just to give other plants a chance to get established.

Some bulrush beasts….

Bulrush bug (Chilacis typhae) - spends its life in the flower head of bulrushes (© Tristan Bantock)

Spotted backswimmer (Notonecta maculata) using young bulrush as a launch pad in my garden pond

Bulrush Wainscot moth (Nonagrea typhae) - the larvae burrow into bulrush stems (© Paul Harris)

Common reed beetle (Donacia aquatica): larvae eat the shoots of bulrush and pupate on the roots