Plantae > Tracheophyta > Liliopsida > Poales > Poaceae > Arundo > Arundo donax

Arundo donax (giant reed; giantreed; Arundo grass; Bamboo reed; Cane; Donax cane; Giant cane; Reedgrass; River cane; Spanish cane; Spanish reed)

Synonyms:

Wikipedia Abstract

Arundo donax, giant cane, is a tall perennial cane growing in damp soils, either fresh or moderately saline. It is one of the several species of the so-called reed. Other common names include Carrizo, Arundo, Spanish cane, Colorado river reed, wild cane, and giant reed.
View Wikipedia Record: Arundo donax

Attributes

Allergen Potential [1]  Medium-High
Edible [2]  May be edible. See the Plants For A Future link below for details.
Flower Type [2]  Hermaphrodite
Lifespan [2]  Perennial
Pollinators [2]  Wind
Structure [3]  Grass
Usage [2]  Brooms are made from the terminal panicles; Plants are grown alongside irrigation canals to check soil erosion; The plant can be grown as a windbreak screen; If cut down, the culms branch and in this form the plants can be used as a hedge; The leaves can be woven into mats etc, whilst the split and flattened stems are used to make screens, walls of houses etc; A yellow dye is obtained from the pollen; The stems of the plant have a multitude of applications. They are used as plant supports for vines and other climbing plants; They are also used as pipe stems; They are used to make the reeds of clarinets and organ pipes; The stems can be harvested as desired at any time of the year; The fibre from the stems can be used to make a good quality paper; This plant is currently (1995) under investigation at Rosewarne in Cornwall as a potential commercial paper crop for small-scale industries in SW. England; Because of rather high yields from natural stands, the plant has been suggested as a source of biomass for energy production; Dry cane yields of ca 10, 15, and 20 tonnes per hectare were reported respectively from infertile, partly fertile and fertile soils; According to the phytomass files annual productivity ranges from 10 to 59 tonnes per hectare, the latter figure from Westlake's (1963) estimate of 57 - 59 tonnes; In addendum, Westlake cites evidence that Arundo donax can produce 40-75 MT/ha/yr. in warm temperate and tropical regions. Early vegetative growth has ME (metabolizable energy) of 2.22 megacalories/kg DM, while hay has an ME of only 1.37 (Gohl, 1981). Such annual productivity, if sustainable, makes this a notable energy candidate, especially when one considers the energy as a by-product, with leaf protein and potential pharmaceutical as primary products; A particular type of cellulose is obtained from the plant; In Italy, the plant is used in the manufacture of rayon;
Height [2]  20 feet (6 m)
Width [2]  13.12 feet (4 m)
View Plants For A Future Record : Arundo donax

Ecoregions

Protected Areas

Ecosystems

Predators

External References

USDA Plant Profile

NatureServe Explorer

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1Derived from Allergy-Free Gardening OPALS™, Thomas Leo Ogren (2000)
♦ 2Plants For A Future licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
♦ 3Kattge, J. et al. (2011b) TRY - a global database of plant traits Global Change Biology 17:2905-2935
♦ 4Ben-Dov, Y., Miller, D.R. & Gibson, G.A.P. ScaleNet 4 November 2009
♦ 5Biological Records Centre Database of Insects and their Food Plants
♦ 6Abundance of food plant species and food habits of Rhinoceros unicornis Linn. in Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary, Assam, India, Pradip Konwar, Malabika Kakati Saikia & P.K. Saikia, Journal of Threatened Taxa | September 2009 | 1(9): 457-460
♦ 7Dry season diets of sympatric ungulates in lowland Nepal: competition and facilitation in alluvial tall grasslands, Per Wegge, Anil K. Shrestha, Stein R. Moe, Ecol Res (2006) 21:698–706
Ecoregions provided by World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF). WildFinder: Online database of species distributions, ver. 01.06 Wildfinder Database
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0