Phragmites Adans., Fam. Pl. 2: 34, 559. 1763; Boiss., Fl. Or. 5: 563. 1884; Hook. f., Fl. Brit. Ind. 7: 303. 1897; Blatter & McCann, Bombay Grasses 202. 1935; Bor, Grasses Burma, Ceyl. Ind. Pak. 415. 1960; Sharma & Khosla, Grasses Punj. and Chandigarh 25. 1989; Fl. China @ eFloras.org 22: 448; Fl. Pak. @ eFloras.org p. 23.

Aquatic or semiaquatic perennials, rhizomatous. Culms tall, erect, leafy. Leaf blades cauline, long, broadly linear, flat, base rounded, deciduous; ligule a ring of long or short hairs. Inflorescence a terminal, large, plumose, copiously branched panicle with numerous, crowded, silky-hairy spikelets; lowest branches bearded at the base. Spikelets laterally compressed, 3-11-flowered, the lowest floret male or barren, persistent, following bisexual florets, uppermost +/- reduced; rachilla internodes except the lowest bearded with long silky hairs, disarticulating above the glumes and between bisexual florets. Glumes shorter than lemmas, unequal, lanceolate, carinate, acute, membranous, 3-5-nerved. Floret callus linear, silky-plumose with long spreading hairs. Lemmas heteromorph; the lowest linear-lanceolate, 3-7-nerved, much longer than the glumes, similar to glumes in texture, persistent; the following lemmas (of bisexual florets) very thin and very narrow, hyaline, rounded or slightly keeled at back, 1-3 nerved, glabrous, entire, acuminate. Palea short, about half the length of the lemma, 2-keeled, hyaline. Stamens 2 or 3.

4 species

Phragmites karka (Retz.) Trin. ex Steud., Nomencl. Bot. ed. 2(2): 324. 1841; Hook. f., Fl. Brit. Ind. 7: 304. 1897; Bor, Grasses Burma, Ceyl. Ind. Pak. 416. 1960; Sharma & Khosla, Grasses Punj. and Chandigarh 26. 1989; Kaur & Sharma, Fl. Sirmaur 685. 2004; Singh & Sharma, Fl. Chamba Dist. 810. 2006; Fl. China @ eFloras.org 22: 449; Fl. Pak. @ eFloras.org p. 26; Arundo karka Retz., Observ. Bot. 4: 21. 1786; Phragmites roxburghii (Kunth) Steud., Nomencl. Bot., ed. 2,2: 324. 1841; Trichodon karka (Retz.) Roth, Arch. Bot. (Leipzig) 1(3): 37. 1798.

Aquatic or semiaquatic perennial with long creeping rhizomes. Culms tall, erect, leafy, 3-4 m long, stout, terete, fistular; nodes glabrous. Leaves distichous; leaf blade coriaceous, erect- ascending, linear-lanceolate, flat, up to 50 cm x 1.5-2.5 cm, base rounded or subcordate, abaxial surface scabrous, apex stiff and acuminate; leaf sheaths longer than the internodes, glabrous; ligule of long and short stiff hairs, up to 4 mm long. Panicle erect, large, 15-68 cm x 10-20 cm, profusely branched, plumose, purplish-brown; branches filiform, scaberulous, bare of spikelets for some distance from base; lowest node bearded, often with many branches in a whorl. Spikelets 1-1.3 cm long, linear-lanceolate, pedicelled, 3-6-flowered. Rachilla with long silky hairs, up to 7 mm long; disarticulating above the glumes and between the bisexual florets. Glumes unequal, shorter than the lemmas, membranous, oblong-lanceolate, acute or acuminate, 3-5-nerved; lower glume 3.5-4 mm long and upper glume 5.5-6 mm long. Lowest floret neuter; upper succeeding florets bisexual; uppermost reduced. Lemmas narrowly elliptic or lanceolate, 7-22 mm long, lowest being the largest, upper becoming smaller and narrower. Fertile lemmas narrowed into an awn-like point. Palea small, ca. 1.5 mm long, membranous, hyaline, 2-keeled.

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