Cattail and Day Lily Look-alikes: Toxic Iris

These look-alikes can make you seriously ill. Get the identification right before you eat anything. Before they flower, cattails and day lilies are confused with toxic iris (including yellow flag iris), which grows in the same wet ground. Cattail leaves are thick and spongy inside, flat on one face and rounded on the back, and wrap around each other at the base. Iris leaves are thin, flat on both faces, and fan out in a single flat plane.