Arundo donax
Poaceae tribe Arundineae
giant cane, giant reed
(2)3-10 m, in large tussocks or hedges.
distichous;
ligules 0.4-1 mm;
blades 30-100 cm long, 2-7(9) cm wide, with a wedge-shaped, light to dark brown area at the base.
30-60 cm long, to 30 cm wide.
10-15 mm, with 2-4 florets.
subequal, as long as the spikelets, thin, brownish or purplish, 3-veined, long-acuminate;
lemmas 8-12 mm, 3-5-veined, pilose, hairs 4-9 mm, apices bifid, midvein ending into a delicate awn;
paleas 3-5 mm, pilose at the base;
anthers 2-3 mm.
3-4 mm, oblong, light brown.
= 24, 100, 110.
Arundo donax
Poaceae tribe Arundineae
Within the Flora region, Arundo donax grows in the southern half of the contiguous United States, being found along ditches, culverts, and roadsides where water accumulates. It has been used extensively as a windbreak, and planted for erosion control on wet dunes. It is also grown for the ornamental value of its tall, leafy culms and large panicles, but its tendency to spread is sometimes a disadvantage. Cultivars with striped or unusually wide leaves, e.g., 'Variegata' and 'Macrophylla', are of horticultural interest but do not merit taxonomic recognition.
Arundo donax has been used for thousands of years in making musical instruments, the stems being used for pipes and the tough inner rind for reeds in a wide variety of woodwind instruments. It is one of the species referred to as 'reed' in the Bible. It is still used in many parts of the world for house construction, lattice-work, mats, screens, stakes, walking sticks, and fishing poles.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
See subfamily description.
There are still questions about the circumscription of the Arundineae, but it clearly includes the genera in this treatment. Its morphological circumscription is also difficult. The most abundant genera in North America, Phragmites and Arundo, have tall culms bearing numerous, conspicuously distichous, broad leaves and large, plumose panicles, a habit frequently described as "reedlike", but not all members of the tribe have this habit. Linder et al. (1997) noted that Arundo, Phragmites, and Molinia have hollow culm internodes, punctate hila, and convex sides to the adaxial ribs in the leaf blades, but these characters have not been examined in all genera of the tribe.
Members of the Arundineae are found in tropical and temperate areas around the world. The reedlike species are found in marshy to damp soils, but some of the other species grow in xeric habitats.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
1. Plants cespitose, not rhizomatous; rachillas and lemmas glabrous | Molinia |
1. Plants rhizomatous or stoloniferous, sometimes also loosely cespitose; rachillas or lemmas hairy. | → 2 |
2. Lemmas glabrous | Phragmites |
2. Lemmas hairy. | → 3 |
3. Rachilla segments hairy; lemmas with papillose-based hairs on the margins | Hakonechloa |
3. Rachilla segments glabrous; lemmas pilose, the hairs not papillose-based | Arundo |
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