The bulrush, a plant used in its entirety: an interview with María de la Flor

The bulrush is a common plant on our rivers, backwaters and wetlands. It is a helophyte (next to water) and can even be invasive in shallow waters, and has colonized a large part of the planet. The bulrush, rush and reed beds are a sanctuary for a large community of wetland flora and fauna, sharing the area with Sparganiaceae, sedge and other aquatic plants.

Bordo is a local Castilian name for what is usually called a bulrush, cattail or soft rush; there are 11 species in the world, six of them in Europe, but only three live in Spain. Two are very common (T. domingensis and T. latifolia), but the other is rare (T. angustifolia). They sometimes form dense grasslands, which dry up in the winter, giving rise to waterscapes of a brownish or straw hue in the mist, but they spring back to life with great strength and vigour in late spring. Of the two common species, one is much more tolerant of polluted, eutrophic or salted waters, so it is extended everywhere: we are talking about Typha domingensis. However, in the area we researched, the most common species is Typha latifolia. There are also hybrids.

Inflorescences or groups of flowers produce velvety brown fruit commonly called «cigars» or «cigarillos» due to their appearance, and are popular dried indoor flowers set in vases. When they mature, they give off «fluff» (seeds), which float and «make a mess», as the locals say. These fluffy seeds are used by some birds such as penduline tits (Remiz pendulinus) to build comfortable nests. In some villages in Burgos, the cigars are called «dustbags».

And who would say, looking at this simple plant, that it is useful for different and curious purposes, like making the seat of a chair, curtains or light blinds, or that it is very resistant, and was an ethno-botanical resource for poor families in the past.

Its soft, ribbon-like leaf is cushioned by air chambers and has been used to make seats for chairs or «bottoms». The neero was a common temporary job in the wetlands of La Mancha, making and repairing these well-known chairs. One such artisan worked in Samboal (Segovia), as María, our protagonist comments. She appears in the photo making a bulrush curtain for her grandchildren (María de la Flor del Río, 74, Mudrián).

She has told and shown us how to carry out this original craft. It may take María two or three afternoons to make a curtain like this one.

«Curtains were always green, made with the sticks of the stem of bulrushes, which I gather in the Soto lagoons, here in the village; I cut the sticks [about 4cm long] and thread them on a twine. They are very practical, useful and resistant curtains to keep out the flies in summer, and we used to make them at home when there were no resources and no shops.»

Likewise, they made blinds with large bits of the same stems cut to the size of the window and placed horizontally; they were joined together in parallel and could be rolled up with a piece of string, like a normal blind. María insists that: «they were very resistant if the stem of the bulrush is cut when green so you can work with it».

Near the village lies the Laguna del Bordal (Bulrush Lagoon) and beyond it, in Cuellar the Espadañal Lagoon (Reed Lagoon) but here we always say bordo and bordal María explains. She says that by the bulrushes, in the same places, «ovas» (Lemna minor and L. gibba) grew, small floating plants the size of a lentil which «[…] were very good fodder for the domestic ducks and geese. We gave them buckets of them as fodder, they really like it and its nourishing».

But there is more: bulrushes are currently much in use as green filters for purifying sewage water in small municipalities, like a phyto-purifier. To this end they are planted or encouraged to grow in ponds and the waste water is channelled there. Their capacity for growing and pumping pollutants, together with an increase in the oxygenation of the water, speeds up the natural purification of the water. So sump-ponds are built or artificial wetlands where the plants float in ditches.