DOC-CANADA said:Secondly, on public plant hikes I've done, I have people calling Cattails (Typha spp.), Bulrushes (Scirpus spp.). In fact, I think more people called them Bulrushes even though Cattails is the commonly accepted term.
Doc that is a common problem due to a Victorian danish painter who's name I can't remember just now who painted Moses in his basket (hence reed baskets being called 'Moses baskets'), amongst a stand of reedmace (or cat-tails) and called it 'Moses in the (bul)rushes). The public at the time took up the name and it drives me crazy trying to re-educate people to use the right name...
Ok found his details in my notes...
Laurens Alma Tadema, later Sir Lawrence Alma Tadema, who painted the picture Finding Moses or as it is more commonly known, Moses in the Rushes, which features the young Moses, in his raft, amongst a stand of Reedmace. In 1904 he gave the painting away for nothing as no one wanted it and the person who commissioned it failed to pay the £5,023 originally agreed, but it was sold at auction in New York for £1.75M in 1995
Here is a picture of Moses in the rushes...