The Reed of Doom

One of the purposes of American Voyages is to introduce readers to the natural setting of North America, with native habitats and life within them being the primary focus of exploring that setting.  That said, ever since the era of colonization began, our continent has been introduced to just about everything on the planet that can grow here.  Being that we have everything from tundra to tropical rainforests here, exotic species usually find a home.  In some cases, they add beauty and an interesting diversity to the landscape.  In many cases, however, they completely screw around with what we had before they decided to blight their new home.  We call these things invasive species, and they are just about as fun as the name suggests.  One such awful, awful plant is Phragmites Australis, commonly called the common, or giant, reed.  To make things confusing, we do have a friendly native version of Phragmites here, but the wicked invader is very recognizable.  It is extremely tall, and looks like a pathetic excuse for wheat either in its dark green summer form or, as seen below, its dormant form.

Visually speaking, one can already notice what a problem species this is.  The reeds are tall, up to 14 feet in some cases, and they tend to dominate whatever shallow water they come in contact with, including beaches, which they pretty much turn into reed beds.  They turn water hazards on golf courses into walls!

St. John's golf course, Plymouth, MI.  Hole 27 desecrated!

They grow in dense stands and crowd out all other vegetation.  Aside from the obvious visual and spatial impact, the reeds tend to produce and release acids which prevent most native plants from growing in shared soils.  The practice of salting the earth to prevent anything from growing, it seems, can be found in the vegetable kingdom too.  On top of this, Phragmites is ridiculously difficult to eradicate once established.  They are not killed by surface fires, and actually regrow faster when burned.  They cannot be readily killed by chemicals, as this tends to pollute the water bodies in which they grow.  They reproduce by airborne seeds which tend to be released when the plants are in any way agitated.  

Most state and provincial departments of agriculture and natural resources recommend notifying them if such reeds start making an appearance on private property, and will gladly assist the property owner if they wish to eradicate the pests, once they are determined to be the invasive, and not native, form.  In several states, they are considered a "kill on sight" plant, having earned a reputation nearly as bad as kudzu or the tamarisk.  If for some reason these reeds do not seem to be a pest, this is because you do not own a shoreline property, or care much for fishing (they also destroy spawning beds).  If this was still not enough to convince you of the sheer wickedness of Phragmites Australis, they also taste bad!