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Giant reed is a grass that grows 4-16' tall (the tallest native grass in Illinois), often in dense, clonal stands. The culm (stem) is greyish-blue or light green; the base of the culm may be 15 mm (about 5/8") across. The culm ends in a panicle up to 1.5' long and half as wide of spikelets. When the florets are blooming, the panicle of spikelets has a reddish, silky appearance. Each spikelet is 12-17 mm long containing 3-7 florets. At the base of the spikelet is a pair of scale-like glumes (bracts) at about a 30° angle to each other; the base of the upper glume is nested inside the base of the lower glume, and both have a long, tapered, pointed tip. The glumes are typically 4-6 mm (1/4") long. Above the glumes, along the central axis of the spikelet (rachilla) are a series of progressively-shorter bracts (lemma and palea — more delicate versions of glumes — surrounding each floret) and tufts of silky hairs 1 cm long attached to the rachilla and obscuring the florets. The most basal floret is either sterile or is staminate; the remaining florets containing both male and female reproductive organs (= "perfect"). Staminate and perfect florets contain 1-3 stamens with purple anthers; perfect florets also have two long, feathery styles. The florets are wind-pollinated. After fertilization, individual seed grains replace the florets.

Phragmites

Phragmites australis

giant reed [Blooms: ?early-midsummer]