An official website of the United States government.

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

National Invasive Species Information Center
U.S. Department of Agriculture
  1. Home
  2. Aquatic Invasives
  3. Aquatic Plants
  4. Giant Reed

Giant Reed

Scientific Name

Arundo donax L. (ITIS)

Common Name

Giant reed, Spanish reed

Native To

Thought to be native to eastern Asia (Polunin & Huxley 1987)

Date of U.S. Introduction

Early 1800's (Mariani et al. 2010)

Means of Introduction

Introduced for erosion control (Mariani et al. 2010)

Impact

Crowds out native plants species; reduces wildlife habitat; contributes to higher fire frequency and intensity; and modifies river hydrology (Giessow et al. 2011)

Giant reed

Giant reed, clasping leaf bases in Tift County, Georgia

Credit

Photo by Chris Evans; University of Illinois

Source
Invasive.org.

Find more images

Spotlights

  • AgResearch Magazine - Tiny Insects Take a Big Bite Out of Giant Reed

    • Oct 2016

    • USDA. Agricultural Research Service.

    • Along the Rio Grande in Texas, tiny insects are taking a big bite out of an invasive weed that competes for limited water resources vital to agriculture and native vegetation. Several years ago, ARS scientists released two insect species as part of a biocontrol program to kill giant reed (Arundo donax).

Distribution / Maps / Survey Status

Videos

All Resources

View and Filter All Giant Reed Resources

Selected Resources

The section below contains highly relevant resources for this species, organized by source.

Council or Task Force
Partnership
Federal Government
International Government
State and Local Government
Academic
Professional
Citations