Description: Tall perennial reeds, with thick, knotty rhizomes; culms almost woody, in large clumps and bearing a superficial resemblance to bamboo.
Leaves evenly spaced in 2 rows along culms; blade not constricted at the base.
Inflorescence a large, plume-like, terminal panicle, dense, erect.
Spikelets pedicellate, solitary; rachilla glabrous, disarticulating above the glumes and between the lemmas, florets several, bisexual, successively smaller towards the apex, the uppermost usually empty. Glumes subequal, narrow, acute, keeled, 3-nerved, glabrous. Lemmas thin, broader than the glumes. Palea shorter than the lemma.
Distribution and occurrence: World: c. 12 species, tropical & temperate areas. Australia: 1 species (naturalized).
Text by S. W. L. Jacobs & S. M. Hastings
Taxon concept:
| One species in NSW: Arundo donax |
|
