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The effects of different pretreatment technologies, including sulfuric acid, hot-water, NaOH and MgCl2 pretreatments, on the fermentation of xylose and glucose released from cattails to ethanol by Saccharomyces cerevisiae ATCC 24858 and Escherichia coli KO11 were investigated. Glucose from cattail cellulose was able to be fermented to ethanol using S. cerevisiae, resulting in 85-91% of the theoretical ethanol yield. Glucose and xylose released from cattail cellulose and hemicellulose were able to be fermented to ethanol using E. coli KO11, resulting in approximately 85% of the theoretical ethanol yield. Among four pretreatment methods, the dilute acid pretreatment was found to be superior, and approximately 85% of original sugars in the cattails were converted to ethanol.