Phragmites australis
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20 Dec 2015
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20 Dec 2015
| Family: | Poaceae |
| Full name: | Phragmites australis (Cav.) Steud. |
| ID status: | Fairly certain |
| Afrikaans common name(s): | Riet, Fluitjiesriet, Sonquasriet, Vaderlandsriet, Vinkriet, Vlakkiesriet, Vleitjiesriet |
| English common name(s): | Reed, Common reed |
| Synonym(s): | Phragmites breviglumis Pomel Phragmites communis Trin. var. pungens L.Chevall. status incertain Phragmites vulgaris (Lam.) Crép. Phragmites vulgaris (Lam.) Crép. var. humilis (De Not.) Parl. status incertain |
| Status: | Native |
| Description: | Perennial reed, with creeping rhizomes. Culms erect, 1.5–3 m high. Leaf-blades 20–60 cm (or more) long and 8–32 mm wide, glabrous, smooth beneath, the tips filiform and flexuous (sometimes obscurely scaberulous or with attenuate tips in subsp. altissimus). Panicle 20–25 cm long and 6–10 cm wide, the lowest node usually few-branched, some of the branches bearing spikelets nearly to their base. Spikelets 12–18 mm long, the rhachilla-hairs 6–10 mm long, copious, silky; lower glume 3–4.5 mm long; upper glume lanceolate, 5–9 mm long, sharply acute, usually apiculate; lowest lemma linear-lanceolate to linear-oblong, 8–15 mm long; fertile lemmas very narrowly lanceolate, 9–13 mm long. (from JSTOR Global Plants website / Flora of Tropical East Africa) A stout perennial growing with a system of long creeping scaly rhizomes. Culms (0.3)0.6-6 m tall or more, up to 1.5 cm in diam., many-noded, slender to stout, usually erect but sometimes floating, simple, terete, glabrous. Leaf-sheaths imbricate at first, later shorter than the internodes, striate, tight, smooth, glabrous. Ligule c. 1 mm long. Leaf-laminae 4-100 x 0.3-5 cm, linear to very narrowly lanceolate, slightly auriculate at the base, tapering to a long filiform flexuous point, usually expanded, rather firm, glabrous but sometime pilose near the base, smooth on both surfaces but sometimes scaberulous along the edges. Panicle 10-50 x 3.5-17 cm, silvery-purplish or brownish, oblong to ovate-oblong in outline, erect or nodding later on, rather dense; rhachis terete in the lower, angular in the upper part, barbate at the nodes; branches fascicled, repeatedly divided, angular, some of them bearing spikelets almost to their base. Pedicels 1-8 mm long, filiform. Spikelets 10-18 mm long, usually brown. Glumes unequal; the inferior (2)3-4.5 (6) mm long, ovate-oblong; the superior 5-9 mm long, lanceolate-oblong to narrowly oblong. Florets usually 4-5 (sometimes 3, 6 or 10). Inferior lemma 9-13 mm long, linear-lanceolate to linear-oblong, acute to acuminate, with the margins involute; fertile lemmas 9-12 mm long, narrowly lanceolate, acuminate; callus 1-1.5 mm long, with the hairs 6-10 mm long. Paleas 1.5-4 mm long. Anthers c. 4 mm long. Caryopsis c. 1.5 mm long. (from JSTOR Global Plants website / Flora Zambesiaca) |
| Link(s) |
African Plant Database
JSTOR Plant Science Kew Herbarium Catalogue BGBM Berlin-Dahlem - Virtual Herbarium Züricher Herbarien iNaturalist (Namibia / Alex Dreyer) iNaturalist (Namibia) iNaturalist (southern Africa) Flora of Zimbabwe Fleurs de notre Terre - Galerie Namibie Tree Atlas of Namibia |
| Content last updated: | 18 Apr 2024 |
