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Side by side
What tells them apart
Out of flower the sword leaves are confusable and they grow side by side. Yellow flag is toxic and fans its leaves from the base; bulrush has loose leaves and the brown cigar.
Confusion that poisons
How to tell it
Long, flat, stiff sword-like leaves, and the dark brown cigar inflorescence that bursts into a cloud of cotton in autumn. Always with its feet in water.
How to tell it
Sword leaves rising in a fan from the base, blue-green. Large yellow flowers with three drooping petals marked in brown. Always with its feet in water.