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| Photo: Carol O'Neill, 10/03 | |
Phragmites or common reed (Phragmites australis) shows silvery plumes in the marsh at the west end of Donaldson Park--Barwood property that we hope the county will add to the Ayres Beach Natural Area. Phragmites has been a mystery: native or nonnative? Forms of it grow on every continent except Antarctica. Recent (1999) peat studies prove that forms of it dwelt among other vegetation in New England marshes long before Columbus or the Vikings. Yet in the late nineteenth century a genetically distinct invasive form seems to have been introduced from somewhere to spread all along the East Coast. As a clonal grass, a given stand can in essence be one huge plant that spreads fiercely, lays down deep roots, and crowds out more varied wetland plants. Wildlife find it acceptable shelter but very poor food. Still, it certainly is pretty in the fall. (Information source: USDA, Biological Control of Invasive Plants in the Eastern United States, 2002, in our environmental drawer at the library Reference Department.)
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