Plant · P-155

Giant Reed

Arundo donax

Giant Reed grows faster and produces more biomass than almost anything else researched here - up to roughly 20 dry tons per acre a year, with figures elsewhere reported far higher - and its canes have traditionally supplied basketry, thatching, paper pulp, and the reed used in clarinets and organ pipes. It is illegal to sell, distribute or import in Texas as a listed noxious weed, also restricted in California, Nevada and Canada, and named among the world's hundred worst invasive alien species. Even setting the law aside, it demands far more water than rainfall alone can supply, and it ignites easily and burns intensely. Its root, a milk-flow suppressant, is also a poor forage choice for dairy stock, and its seed is almost never viable in North America, so every escape spreads by root fragments alone.