Taxon: Phragmites australis (Cav.) Trin. ex Steud.

A declared aquatic or terrestrial noxious weed and/or noxious-weed seed in these U.S. states (see state noxious weed lists), with links to state information or web documents:

AL*, CT*, MA*, NHª, NH(as Phragmites communis)ª, PRª, SCª, VTª.

ªAquatic.

*Terrestrial.

°In seed.

Link to noxious weed information from

Link to species profile at

See also subordinate taxa:

• Phragmites australis subsp. altissimus (no accessions)
• Phragmites australis subsp. americanus (no accessions)
• Phragmites australis subsp. australis (no accessions)

Common names:

• common reed   (Source: World Econ Pl ) – English
  
• ditch reed   (Source: Websters Dict ) – English
  
• giant reed   (Source: Websters Dict ) – English
  
• phragmites   (Source: Herbs Commerce ed2 ) – English
  
• reed grass   (Source: Websters Dict ) – English
  
• bous   (Source: F Egypt ) – Arabic
  
• ghab   (Source: Ill L Qatar ) – Arabic
  
• qassab   (Source: Ill L Qatar ) – Arabic
  
• phragmite commun   (Source: F NAmer ) – French
  
• roseau commun   (Source: Dict Rehm ) – French
  
• Schilf   (Source: Dict Rehm ) – German
  
• Schilfrohr   (Source: Dict Rehm ) – German
  
• galdae   (Source: F Korea ) – Transcribed Korean
  
• caniço   (Source: Dict Rehm ) – Portuguese
  
• carrizo común   (Source: Dict Rehm ) – Spanish
  

Economic importance:

• Environmental: erosion control   (fide Aquat Bot 51:87-101. 1996; Invasive Pl Spec)
  
• Medicines: folklore   (fide CRC MedHerbs ed2; Herbs Commerce ed2)
  
• Weed: potential seed contaminant   (fide Weed CIBA; Invasive Pl Spec)
  

More:

View phytochemical or ethnobotanical data from Duke's Phytochemical and Ethnobotanical Databases

View ethnobotanical data from Moerman's Native American Ethnobotany Database

Distributional range:

• AFRICA
  Macaronesia: Cape Verde; Portugal - Madeira Islands; Spain - Canary Islands
  Northern Africa: Algeria; Egypt; Libya; Morocco; Tunisia
  Northeast Tropical Africa: Chad; Eritrea; Ethiopia; Somalia; Sudan
  East Tropical Africa: Kenya
  West-Central Tropical Africa: Cameroon [n.]
  West Tropical Africa: Gambia; Niger; Nigeria; Senegal
  South Tropical Africa: Mozambique; Zambia; Zimbabwe
  Southern Africa: Botswana; Lesotho; Namibia; South Africa - Cape Province, Free State, KwaZulu-Natal, Transvaal; Swaziland
  Western Indian Ocean: Madagascar
• ASIA-TEMPERATE
  Arabian Peninsula: Bahrain; Kuwait; Yemen
  Western Asia: Afghanistan; Cyprus; Iran; Iraq; Israel; Jordan; Lebanon; Syria; Turkey
  Caucasus: Armenia; Azerbaijan; Russian Federation - Checheno-Ingushetia, Dagestan, Kabardino-Balkaria, Karachay-Cherkessia, Krasnodar, North Ossetia, Stavropol
  Siberia: Russian Federation - Altay, Buryatia, Chita, Gorno-Altay, Irkutsk, Kemerovo, Krasnoyarsk, Kurgan, Novosibirsk, Omsk, Tomsk, Tuva, Tyumen, Yakutia-Sakha
  Middle Asia: Kazakhstan; Kyrgyzstan; Tajikistan; Turkmenistan; Uzbekistan
  Mongolia: Mongolia
  Russian Far East: Russian Federation - Amur, Kamchatka, Khabarovsk, Primorye, Sakhalin
  China: China
  Eastern Asia: Japan; Korea
• ASIA-TROPICAL
  Indian Subcontinent: Pakistan
• AUSTRALASIA
  Australia: Australia - New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, Western Australia [s.]
• EUROPE
  Northern Europe: Denmark; Finland; Ireland; Norway; Sweden; United Kingdom
  Middle Europe: Austria; Belgium; Czech Republic; Germany; Hungary; Netherlands; Poland; Slovakia; Switzerland
  East Europe: Belarus; Estonia; Latvia; Lithuania; Moldova; Russian Federation - European part, Rostov, Volgograd; Ukraine [incl. Krym]
  Southeastern Europe: Albania; Bosnia and Herzegovina; Bulgaria; Croatia; Greece [incl. Crete]; Italy [incl. Sardinia, Sicily]; Macedonia; Montenegro; Romania; Serbia; Slovenia
  Southwestern Europe: France [incl. Corsica]; Portugal; Spain [incl. Baleares]
• NORTHERN AMERICA (Check conservation status in U.S. & Canada in NatureServe Explorer database)
  Subarctic America: Canada - Northwest Territory [s.w.]
  Eastern Canada: Canada - New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Quebec
  Western Canada: Canada - Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Saskatchewan
  Northeastern U.S.A.: United States - Connecticut, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia
  North-Central U.S.A.: United States - Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Wisconsin
  Northwestern U.S.A.: United States - Colorado, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming
  Southeastern U.S.A.: United States - Alabama, Arkansas [n.], Delaware, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina
  South-Central U.S.A.: United States - New Mexico, Texas
  Southwestern U.S.A.: United States - Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah
  Northern Mexico: Mexico - Baja Norte, Baja Sur, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Durango, Nuevo Leon, Tamaulipas
  Southern Mexico: Mexico - Campeche, Chiapas, Colima, Guanajuato, Jalisco, Michoacan, Morelos, Nayarit, Puebla, Quintana Roo, Tabasco, Yucatan
• SOUTHERN AMERICA
  Caribbean: Bahamas; Dominican Republic; Guadeloupe; Haiti; Jamaica; Martinique; Puerto Rico; St. Lucia
  Mesoamerica: Belize; Costa Rica; El Salvador; Guatemala; Honduras; Nicaragua; Panama
  Northern South America: French Guiana; Guyana; Suriname; Venezuela
  Western South America: Bolivia; Colombia; Ecuador; Peru
  Southern South America: Argentina; Chile; Uruguay

• AUSTRALASIA
  New Zealand: New Zealand
• NORTHERN AMERICA (Check conservation status in U.S. & Canada in NatureServe Explorer database)
  United States [of European populations]

• exact native range obscure

References:

• Plants of southern Africa: an online checklist.
• Adams, C. 1972. Flowering plants of Jamaica.
• Ali, S. I. & S. M. H. Jafri, eds. 1976–. Flora of Libya.
• Arechavaleta, M. et al., eds. 2005. Lista preliminar de especies silvestres de Cabo Verde: hongos, plantas y animales terrestres.
• Boulos, L. & M. N. El-Hadidi. 1984. The weeds of Egypt.
• Boulos, L. 1995. Flora of Egypt checklist.
• Boulos, L. 1999–. Flora of Egypt.
• Brako, L. & J. L. Zarucchi. 1993. Catalogue of the flowering plants and gymnosperms of Peru. Monogr. Syst. Bot. Missouri Bot. Gard. 45.
• CIBA-GEIGY, Basel, Switzerland. Documenta CIBA-GEIGY (Grass weeds 1. 1980, 2. 1981; Monocot weeds 3. 1982; Dicot weeds 1. 1988)
• Chinese Academy of Sciences. 1959–. Flora reipublicae popularis sinicae.
• Correll, D. S. & H. B. Correll. 1982. Flora of the Bahama archipelago.
• Davidse, G. et al., eds. 1994. Flora mesoamericana.
• Davis, P. H., ed. 1965–1988. Flora of Turkey and the east Aegean islands.
• Duke, J. A. et al. 2002. CRC Handbook of medicinal herbs.
• Englert, J. M. et al. 1999–. USDA-NRCS Improved conservation plant materials released by NRCS and cooperators.
• Euro+Med Editorial Committee. Euro+Med Plantbase: the information resource for Euro-Mediterranean plant diversity (on-line resource).
• Exell, A. W. et al., eds. 1960–. Flora zambesiaca.
• FNA Editorial Committee. 1993–. Flora of North America.
• Fedorov, A. A., ed. 1999–. Flora of Russia. The European part and bordering regions (Engl. transl.).
• Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). 2010. Ecocrop (on-line resource).
• George, A. S., ed. 1980–. Flora of Australia.
• Gibbs-Russell, G. E. et al. 1990. Grasses of southern Africa. Mem. Bot. Surv. S. Africa vol. 58.
• Giraldo-Cañas, D. 2011. Catálogo de la familia Poaceae en Colombia. Darwiniana 49:139–247.
• Görts-van Rijn, A. R. A., ed. 1986–. Flora of the Guianas.
• Hansen, A. & P. Sunding. 1993. Flora of Macaronesia: checklist of vascular plants, ed. 4. Sommerfeltia vol. 17.
• Herrera-Arrieta, Y. 2001. Las Gramíneus de Durango.
• Howard, R. 1974–1989. Flora of the lesser Antilles.
• Instituto de Botánica Darwinion. 2008. Flora del Conosur. Catálogo de las plantas vasculares.
• Izquierdo Z., I. et al., eds. 2004. Lista de especies silvestres de Canarias: hongos, plantas y animales terrestres.
• Jørgensen, P. M. & S. León-Yánez, eds. 1999. Catalogue of the vascular plants of Ecuador. Monogr. Syst. Bot. Missouri Bot. Gard. 75.
• Kartesz, J. T. 1994. A synonymized checklist of the vascular flora of the United States, Canada, and Greenland.
• Kharkevich, S. S., ed. 1985. Vascular plants of the Russian Far East.
• Krasnoborov, I. M., ed. 2000–. Flora of Siberia (English translation).
• Liogier, H. A. & L. F. Martorell. 2000. Flora of Puerto Rico and adjacent islands: a systematic synopsis, ed. 2.
• Mal, T. K. & L. Narine. 2004. The biology of Canadian weeds. 129. Phragmites australis (Cav.) Trin. ex Steud. Canad. J. Pl. Sci. 84:365–396.
• McGuffin, M., J. T. Kartesz, A. Y. Leung, & A. O. Tucker. 2000. Herbs of commerce, ed. 2.
• Meikle, R. D. 1977–1985. Flora of Cyprus.
• Mun-Chan, B. et al. 1986. A checklist of the Korean cultivated plants. Kulturpflanze 34:117.
• Nasir, E. & S. I. Ali, eds. 1970–. Flora of [West] Pakistan.
• Norton, J. et al. 2009. Illustrated checklist of the flora of Qatar.
• Ostendorp, W. 1996. Estimation of mechanical resistance of lakeside Phragmites stands. Aquatic Bot. 51:87–101.
• Rehm, S. 1994. Multilingual dictionary of agronomic plants.
• Renvoize, S. A. 1998. Gramineas de Bolivia.
• Saltonstall, K. et al. 2004. Recognition of Phragmites australis subsp. americanus (Poaceae: Arundinoideae) in North America: evidence from morphological and genetic analyses. Sida 21:683–692.
• Saltonstall, K. 2011. Remnant native Phragmites australis maintains genetic diversity despite multiple threats. Conservation Genet. 12:1027–1033.
• Sell, P. & G. Murrell. 1996–. Flora of Great Britain and Ireland.
• Steyermark, J. A. et al., eds. 1995–. Flora of the Venezuelan Guayana.
• Townsend, C. C. & E. Guest. 1966–. Flora of Iraq.
• Tzvelev, N. N. 1976. Zlaki SSSR.
• USDA National Agricultural Library. National Invasive Species Information Center (on-line resource).
• Ugarte, E. et al. 2011. Vascular alien flora, Chile. Check List 7:365–380.
• Valdés, B. et al., eds. 2002. Catalogue des plantes vasculaires du nord du Maroc, incluant des clés d'identification.
• Weber, E. 2003. Invasive plant species of the world: a reference guide to environmental weeds.
• Wood, J. R. I. 1997. A handbook of the flora of Yemen.
• Wu Zheng-yi & P. H. Raven et al., eds. 1994–. Flora of China (English edition).
• Zohary, M. & N. Feinbrun-Dothan. 1966–. Flora palaestina.
• Zuloaga, F. O. & O. Morrone, eds. 1996. Catálogo de las plantas vasculares de la República Argentina. I. Pteridophyta, Gymnospermae y Angiospermae (Monocotyledonae), II. Dicotyledonae. Monogr. Syst. Bot. Missouri Bot. Gard. 60, 74., 1999
• Zuloaga, F. O. et al. 2003. Catalogue of New World grasses (Poaceae): III. Subfamilies Panicoideae, Aristidoideae, Arundinoideae, and Danthonioideae. Contr. U.S. Natl. Herb. 46:537.
• Webster's third new international dictionary.

More:

Search AGRICOLA article citation database for citations referencing Phragmites australis.

Search NCBI's Entrez search engine for PubMed citations referencing Phragmites australis.

Search Biodiversity Heritage Library for historical publications referencing Phragmites australis.

Synonyms:

• Arundo altissima Benth. [≡ Phragmites australis subsp. altissimus]
  
• Arundo australis Cav. [≡ Phragmites australis subsp. australis]
  
• (=) Arundo phragmites L.
  
• (=) Arundo vulgaris Lam.
  
• (=) Phragmites communis Trin.
  (previously associated with 14 accessions)
• (=) Phragmites communis var. longivalvis (Steud.) Miq.
  
• (=) Phragmites longivalvis Steud.
  
• (=) Phragmites vulgaris (Lam.) Crép.
  (previously associated with 5 accessions)
• (=) Phragmites vulgaris var. longivalvis (Steud.) W. Wight
  (previously associated with 1 accession)

Check other web resources for Phragmites australis (Cav.) Trin. ex Steud.:

• PLANTS: USDA-NRCS Database of Plants of the United States and its Territories
• BONAP: North American Plant Atlas of the Biota of North America Program
• Flora del Conosur: Catálogo de las Plantas Vasculares del Conosur
• Flora of China: Online version from Harvard University
• AVH: Australia's Virtual Herbarium
• ABRS: Australian Biological Resources Study Flora of Australia online
• SIBIS: South African National Biodiversity Institute's (SANBI) Integrated Biodiversity System
• On-line Flora of Zimbabwe
• TROPICOS: Nomenclatural and Specimen Database of the Missouri Botanical Garden
• CNWG: Catalogue of New World Grasses Searchable Database
• Grass Manual on the Web: Manual of Grasses for North America North of Mexico
• World Grass Species-Descriptions: Morphological species description from Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
• AusGrass2: Australian grass data from Bryan K. Simon’s on-line database
• Mansfeld: Mansfeld's World Database of Agricultural and Horticultural Crops
• ePIC: Electronic Plant Information Centre of Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
• AGRICOLA: Article Citation Database or NAL Catalog of USDA's National Agricultural Library
• Entrez: NCBI's search engine for PubMed citations, GenBank sequences, etc.

Images:

• GRIN Images of germplasm accessions.
• Forestry Images: Images of invasive weeds from www.forestryimages.org

More:

• Check PlantSystematics.org for additional images
• Images Note: Be advised that their identity may be inaccurate. Proper identification of a plant may require specialized taxonomic knowledge or comparison with properly documented herbarium material.

Abbreviations & symbols in GRIN Taxonomy

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