Description: Perennial reeds with creeping rhizomes; culms erect.
Leaves with ligule a densely ciliate membranous rim; blade rolled in bud, flat, alternate on culm.
Inflorescence a large, terminal, spreading panicle, dense, often drooping, hairy.
Spikelets pedicellate, solitary, with several florets, the lowest male the others bisexual, disarticulating above the glumes and at the base of each lemma. Glumes lanceolate, unequal, acute, rounded on the back, 3–5-nerved, thin, papery. Lemmas long-subulate, narrow, 3–5-nerved, papery, glabrous. Palea linear to oblong, about half as long as the lemma, 2-keeled.
Distribution and occurrence: World: 3 species, cosmopolitan. Australia: 2 species (native), all States.
Text by S. W. L. Jacobs & K. L. McClay
Taxon concept:
| One species in NSW: Phragmites australis |
|
