reed mace

American  

noun

1. cattail.

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reed mace British  

noun

1. Also called: bulrush.   false bulrush.   cat's-tail.  a tall reedlike marsh plant, Typha latifolia , with straplike leaves and flowers in long brown sausage-shaped spikes: family Typhaceae See also bulrush

2. a related and similar plant, Typha angustifolia

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Etymology

Origin of reed mace

First recorded in 1540–50

Example Sentences

In the low marshy meadows were willows, 51 a kind of reed mace, cotton grass, rushes, and, in the water, adder's tongue.

From Travels in the Interior of North America, Part I, (Being Chapters I-XV of the London Edition, 1843) Early Western Travels, 1748-1846, Volume XXII by Maximilian, Alexander Philipp

And in her long wet hair were the white flowers of the water-violet, and she held a reed mace in her hand.

From The Art of the Story-Teller by Shedlock, Marie L.

So the burr reed, among the prettiest of all the upright plants growing out of the water, is not a reed, but a reed mace.

From The Naturalist on the Thames by Cornish, C. J. (Charles John)