MANUAL OF THE GRASSES OF THE UNITED STATES 191 



argentea (C. selloana). Name from the Argentine native name 

 cortadera, cutting, because of the cutting edges of the blades. 



1. Cortaderia selloana (Schult.) Aschers. and Graebn. PAMPAS- 

 GRASS. (Fig. 371.) Dioecious perennial reed, in large bunches; 

 culms stout, erect, 2 to 3 or more m tall; panicle feathery, silvery white 

 to pink, 30 to 100 cm long; spikelets 2- to 3-flowered, the pistillate 

 silky with long hairs, the staminate naked; glumes white, papery, 

 long, slender; lemmas bearing a long slender awn. Qt (Gynerium 

 argenteum Nees.) Plains and open slopes, Brazil to Argentina and 

 Chile. Cultivated as a lawn ornamental in the warmer parts of 

 the United States ; in southern California grown commercially for the 

 plumes which are used for decorative purposes, the culms here being 

 sometimes as much as 7 m tall. 



CORTADERIA RTTDIUSCTJLA Stapf. Differing from C. selloana in the looser 

 yellowish or purplish panicle; spikelets somewhat smaller. 91 Occasionally 

 cultivated for ornament; Argentina. Has been called C. quila Stapf, but that 

 name is ultimately based on Arundo quila Molino, which is a bamboo, Chusquea 

 quila (Molino) Kunth. 



AMPELODESMOS MATJRITANICUS (Poir.) Dur. and Schinz. Tall slender reed; 

 blades with a half twist at base, elongate, thick, narrow, ending in a long scabrous 

 setaceous tip; panicle 30 to 50 cm long, the slender branches drooping, naked at 

 base, with large crowded spikelets toward the ends. 21 Grown for ornament 

 in California. Mediterranean region. Generic name often incorrectly spelled 

 Ampelodesma. 



26. PHRAGMITES Trin. 



Spikelets several-flowered, the rachilla clothed with long silky 

 hairs, disarticulating above the glumes and at the base of each joint 

 between the florets, the lowest floret staminate or neuter; glumes 

 3-nerved, or the upper 5-nerved, lanceolate, acute, unequal, the first 

 about half as long as the upper, the second shorter than the florets; 

 lemmas narrow, long-acuminate, glabrous, 3-nerved, the florets suc- 

 cessively smaller, the summits of all about equal ; palea much shorter 

 than the lemma. Perennial reeds, with broad, flat, linear blades and 

 large terminal panicles. Type species, Arundo phragmites L. (Phrag- 

 mites communis). Name from Greek in reference to its growth like 

 a fence (phragma) along streams. 



1. Phragmites communis Trin. COMMON REED. (Fig. 372.) 

 Culms erect, 2 to 4 m tall, with stout creeping rhizomes and 

 often also with stolons; blades flat, 1 to 5 cm wide; panicle tawny, 

 15 to 40 cm long, the branches ascending, rather densely flowered; 

 spikelets 12 to 15 mm long, the florets exceeded by the hairs of the 

 rachilla. 91 (P. phragmites Karst.) Marshes, banks of lakes and 

 streams, and around springs, Nova Scotia to British Columbia, 

 south to Delaware, Illinois, Louisiana, and California; Florida; 

 Mexico and West Indies to Chile and Argentina (fig. 373); Eurasia, 

 Africa, Australia. 



In the Southwest this, in common with Arundo donax, is called by 

 the Mexican name carrizo and is used for lattices in the construction 

 of adobe huts. The stems were used by the Indians for shafts of 

 arrows, and in Mexico and Arizona for mats and screens, for thatching, 

 cordage, and carrying nets. 



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