Phragmites Adans.
Type species: P. australis (Cav.) Trin. ex Steud.
Tall, robust perennial reeds with flat cauline leaves, hollow culms and creeping rhizomes. Ligule a membranous truncate rim, long-ciliate. Leaf-blade linear, long-tapering, deciduous. Inflorescence a large plumose panicle. Spikelets 2-6-flowered, lowest floret ♂ or Ø, others ⚥; disarticulating above glumes and between lemmas; rachilla long-hairy, hardly prolonged. Glumes unequal, < lowest lemma, 3-5-nerved, membranous. Lemma 1-3-nerved, narrow-lanceolate, rounded, hyaline, glabrous, lemma of lowest floret similar to glumes, others caudate-acuminate. Palea « lemma. Lodicules 2, obovate. Callus plumose. Stamens 3.
3-4 spp., cosmopolitan, in marshes and along rivers. Naturalised sp. 1.
