Concept

Arundo donax

Summary
Arundo donax is a tall perennial cane. It is one of several so-called reed species. It has several common names including giant cane, elephant grass, carrizo, arundo, Spanish cane, Colorado river reed, wild cane, and giant reed. Arundo and donax are respectively the old Latin and Greek names for reed. Arundo donax grows in damp soils, either fresh or moderately saline, and is native to the Greater Middle East. It has been widely planted and naturalised in the mild temperate, subtropical and tropical regions of both hemispheres, especially in the Mediterranean, California, the western Pacific and the Caribbean and is considered invasive in North America and Oceania. It forms dense stands on disturbed sites, sand dunes, in wetlands and riparian habitats. Arundo donax generally grows to in height, or in ideal conditions can exceed . The hollow stems are in diameter. The grey-green swordlike leaves are alternate, long and wide with a tapered tip, and have a hairy tuft at the base. Overall, the plant resembles an outsize common reed (Phragmites australis) or a bamboo (subfamily Bambusoideae). A. donax flowers in late summer, bearing upright, feathery plumes long, that are usually seedless or with seeds that are rarely fertile. Instead, it mostly reproduces vegetatively by tough, fibrous underground rhizomes that form knotty, spreading mats which penetrate deep into the soil, up to deep. Stem and rhizome pieces less than long and containing a single node could sprout readily under a variety of conditions. This vegetative propagation appears well adapted to floods, which may break up individual A. donax clumps, spreading the pieces, which may sprout and colonise downstream. Arundo donax is a tall, perennial grass in the subfamily Arundinoideae, characterised by C3 photosynthesis. The stems produced during the first growing season are unbranched and photosynthetic. In the Mediterranean, where a temperate climate is characterized by warm and dry summer and mild winter, new shoots of giant reed emerge around March, growing rapidly in June and July and producing stems and leaves.
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Related concepts (5)
Energy crop
Energy crops are low-cost and low-maintenance crops grown solely for renewable bioenergy production (not for food). The crops are processed into solid, liquid or gaseous fuels, such as pellets, bioethanol or biogas. The fuels are burned to generate electrical power or heat. The plants are generally categorized as woody or herbaceous. Woody plants include willow and poplar, herbaceous plants include Miscanthus x giganteus and Pennisetum purpureum (both known as elephant grass).
Reed (mouthpiece)
A reed (or lamella) is a thin strip of material that vibrates to produce a sound on a musical instrument. Most woodwind instrument reeds are made from Arundo donax ("Giant cane") or synthetic material. Tuned reeds (as in harmonicas and accordions) are made of metal or synthetics. Musical instruments are classified according to the type and number of reeds. The earliest types of single-reed instruments used idioglottal reeds, where the vibrating reed is a tongue cut and shaped on the tube of cane.
Woodwind instrument
Woodwind instruments are a family of musical instruments within the greater category of wind instruments. Common examples include flute, clarinet, oboe, bassoon, and saxophone. There are two main types of woodwind instruments: flutes and reed instruments (otherwise called reed pipes). The main distinction between these instruments and other wind instruments is the way in which they produce sound. All woodwinds produce sound by splitting the air blown into them on a sharp edge, such as a reed or a fipple.
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