Phragmites australis

Large, perennial grass.

100–300 cm high.

The culm is erect, stout and smooth with many nodes. The rhizome is long, forked and forms extensive stands.

The leaves are alternate, sessile, sheathed and shorter than the culm. The lamina is 10–20 mm wide, long-acuminate, compressed, rigid, with a sharp margin, opaque grey-green and there is a traverse wrinkle at half-way of the lamina. The ligule is dense- and short-hairy.

The inflorescence is a 10–30 cm long broad conoidal, dense, purplish or brownish panicle, which is initially erect and eventually drooping. The spikelets are 10–16 mm long and narrow with 2–7 florets. The florets are bisexual. There are about 10 mm long silvery hairs on the spikelet axis. The glumes are acute. The outer glume is about 3 mm long, and the inner glume is about 6 mm long. The lemma of the florets at the base of a spikelet is up to 10 mm long and awnless. The palea is about 2 mm long.

Grain.