Phragmites karka

Phragmites karka, the tall reed or karka reed, is a robust perennial grass of the family Poaceae widespread through the wetlands of tropical and subtropical Africa, Asia, Australia and the Pacific. It spreads by stout creeping rhizomes to form extensive dense stands along riverbanks, lake margins, marshes and ditches, sending up tall, cane-like, hollow culms that commonly reach 2 to 6 metres or more in height. The broad, flat, linear leaf blades are arranged in two ranks and taper to fine points, with smooth sheaths and a fringe of hairs in place of a membranous ligule. The large terminal flowering panicle is soft, plume-like and nodding, ranging from purplish to silvery-brown, the spikelets bearing long silky hairs that give the inflorescence its feathery appearance and aid wind dispersal of the seed. Closely related to the cosmopolitan common reed, it is distinguished by its often taller stature, the persistence of its ligular hairs and details of the panicle, and it is an important component of palaeotropical reed-swamp vegetation as well as a source of thatch and fibre.