Phragmites australis

Common reed

Family: Poaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Common reed is a California native perennial found in pond and lake margins, sloughs, and marshes throughout California at elevations generally below 1,600 meters. Flowering from July to November, this plant produces purple to white flowers in large plume-like inflorescences 15 to 50 centimeters long. Growing with tall stems 2 to 4 meters in height, it forms dense, robust stands in wetland environments. Its leaves are long and narrow, measuring 20 to 45 centimeters in length and 1 to 5 centimeters wide, with rough margins that often break at the leaf collar. The plant's feathery flowering heads create distinctive landscape-scale colonies in wetland habitats.

Habitat: Pond and lake margins, sloughs, marshes

Bloom period: Jul-Nov

Elevation: generally < 1600 m

Bioregions: CA

California counties: San Bernardino, Riverside, Imperial, San Diego, Inyo, San Joaquin, Kern, San Luis Obispo, Contra Costa, Fresno, Ventura, Lassen, Solano, Lake, Los Angeles, Mono, Santa Barbara, Siskiyou, Modoc, Alpine, Mendocino, Sacramento, Tulare, Shasta, Merced, Colusa, Napa, Humboldt, Stanislaus, Del Norte, Monterey, Yolo, Sonoma, San Benito

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.