Arundo donax
Giant reed ( Arundo donax ) - habitus on São Jorge, Azores
The giant reed ( Arundo donax ), also called giant reed pipe or Spanish, is a schnellwüchsiges, up to six meters tall reeds. As a neophyte, it is distributed almost worldwide in the tropics and subtropics today.
Description
Pile pipe a perennial plant, the plant height is reached up to six meters. The shoot axis is simple, erect, more or less woody and reaches a diameter between 1 and 3.5 inches. The internodes are thickened and growing from them similar to many species of bamboo tufts of small branches from. The species forms thick, knotty rhizomes. The rhizome woody and creeps.
The clear two-line leaves sit on the trunk, are linear - lanceolate and about 30 to 60 inches long and 1-8 inches wide. They are usually longer than the internodes and bare except for a few hairs on the long wedge-shaped pointed tip. The ligule are 0.7 to 1.5 millimeters long.
The inflorescence is a 30 to 90 centimeters long and an average of 5.8 centimeters wide, dense panicle. It is 10 to 25 inches long, ascending branches. The spikelets are 11-14 mm long and consist of two to five flowers. The narrow lanceolate glumes are unequal and 8 to 12 millimeters long. The lanceolate lemmas 8.5 to 23 millimeters in size and three -to seven- annoying. Three of the nerves form a up to 1.5 mm long awn. The bidentate tips of the lemmas are dorsally covered with 5 to 6 millimeters long hair. The palea ( Palea ) accounts for about half of the lemma. Dust bags are about 3 millimeters long.
The nature blooms and bears fruit from July to November.
Dissemination
Pile pipe prefers moist locations on coasts, rivers and lakeshores or in marshes. If the type has been fixed once, but it also grows on dry soils.
The natural origin is controversial, are discussed East Asia, India and the Mediterranean. The giant reed has been cultivated since ancient times in Asia up to the Mediterranean and has been widely abducted in this way. In the New World it was introduced in California only at the beginning of the 19th century, from where it has spread rapidly. In the United States it is now attacked as invasive species, problematic are primarily the deposits in California, Texas and Nevada. Today it is widely used both in the tropics and subtropics of the Old and New World as well as in Oceania.
Use
The giant reed is often planted as a windbreak hedge. In the south, the giant reed was the same long cut, tied together often used as a shade roof terraces. But limited, the species is suitable as feed. Cattle eat the young leaves, but spurned older sheet material and the stems. The leaves are, however, used to weave mats and baskets. In ancient Rome were pins made of giant reed stalks in use.
From the stems of the pile tube, the tube leaves of many single and double reed instruments also often the whistle of the pan flute are built, such as bagpipes, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, saxophone and Krummhorn to continue. One of the oldest instruments of giant reed, which is already proved for the time of the pharaohs in the Egyptian room, the oriental flute " nay " in the traditional as well as in the pan-Arab modern music is popular throughout the Orient.
The species is of limited suitability for paper production. The paper is of a lower quality. Due to its fast growth and undemanding its use is discussed as an energy crop.
Varieties
There are two varieties:
- Arundo donax var donax
- Arundo donax var versicolor (Mill.) Stokes: With white-green striped leaves.
- Arundo donax var coleotricha Hack: With very hairy leaves.
Trivial names
In the German-speaking area or have been for this species, some only regionally, including the common name garden pipe, pipe Tame, shawm pipe, write Ried ( Middle High German ), and writing tube ( Middle High German ) used.