Phalaris arundinacea L.

An ornamental form of this species with green- and cream-striped leaf blades, Phalaris arundinacea var. picta Linnaeus (丝带草 si dai cao), is sometimes cultivated in gardens.

Reed Canary Grass is found growing on stream banks and in marshes. It is said by Hubbard to be a good grazing or hay grass when young. Probably native in Pakistan and Kashmir.

Culms tufted with scaly, creeping rhizomes, 50-150 cm tall, glabrous. Blades 15-30 cm long, 0.8-1.5 cm wide, glabrous. Sheath cylindrical; ligule acute, 2-3 mm long. Panicle branched, 5-40 cm long; lobed and branched at the base, branches erect to spreading. Spikelets ovate, 3-flowered, compressed, ovate, 3.5-7.5 mm long; glumes equal, as long as the spikelet, 3-nerved, apex acute, folded, keel usually wingless or inconspituously narrowly winged. Fertile lemma 2.7-4.5 mm long,weakly 5-nerved, shiny, sparingly pubescent; palea lanceolate, 2-nerved; sterile lemma vestigial, pilose.

Perennial, rhizomatous; rhizomes extensively spreading. Culms reedlike, erect, leafy, 0.6–1.5 m tall, 6–8-noded. Leaf sheaths glabrous, not inflated; leaf blades 10–35 cm × 10–18 mm, tapering to a fine apex; ligule 2–3 mm. Panicle contracted, linear-oblong in outline, lobed, interrupted, 8–15 cm; branches short, erect, densely spiculate. Spikelets oblong, laterally compressed, 4–6 mm; glumes narrowly lanceolate, glabrous or puberulous, pale green streaked darker green or purplish, keel scabrid, wingless or very narrowly winged upward, apex sharply acute; sterile lemmas equal, subulate, 1.5–1.8 mm, villous; fertile lemma broadly lanceolate, 3–4 mm, appressed-pubescent upward, shiny; palea boat-shaped, keels ciliolate. Anthers 2.5–3 mm. Fl. and fr. Jun–Aug. 2n = 28.

Perennial from scaly creeping rhizomes. Culms 50-150 cm tall. Leaf-blades up to 20 cm long and 15 mm wide. Panicle 7-40 cm long, dense, lobed or interrupted, with short branches up to 5 cm long, these spreading at anthesis but otherwise contracted about the main axis. Glumes 3.5-7.5 mm long, acute, wingless or with a very narrow and inconspicuous wing on the keel; sterile florets 2, subulate, 1.2-2.3 mm long, villous; fertile floret lanceolate, 2.7-4.5 mm long, dull yellow to grey-brown, sparsely pubescent.

Temperate regions of N. hemisphere.

Widely distributed in the temperate parts of the northern Hemisphere.

Anhui, Gansu, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Jilin, Liaoning, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Xinjiang, Yunnan, Zhejiang (Lin'an) [widely distributed in temperate parts of the N hemisphere].

Distribution: Pakistan (Punjab & Kashmir); North temperate regions, now intro¬duced to most parts of the world.

2100 m

Fl. & Fr. Per.: May-July.

Marshy grassland, river and lake margins, forming colonies; 100–3200 m.

Typhoides arundinacea (Linnaeus) Moench.