Reed canary grass
Phalaris arundinacea L.
- light
- Sun–part
- water
- Medium
- tall
- 1.1 m
- wide
- 1.7 m
Poaceae
Also called Reed Canary Grass, Reed Canary-grass, Reed canarygrass, Reed-grass, reed-Canary grass
Formerly Baldingera arundinacea, Baldingera colorata, Calamagrostis colorata, Digraphis arundinacea, and 13 more
When it flowers
Not known yet in the tropics: too few flowering observations to read a season from.
If a child, a pet or anyone may have eaten a plant, contact a doctor or vet straight away, or call the National Poisons Information Centre (AIIMS, New Delhi) on 1800 116 117, free and open 24 hours.
Something wrong with it?About it
- Grows as
- Perennial or rhizomatous geophyteKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Climate
- TemperateKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Wild in
- Temp. & Subtrop. Northern Hemisphere to Trop. Mts.Kew's checklist, not yet checked
- Light
- Full sun to part shade (3 h or more)Read from NC State Extension, one source
- Height
- 61 cm to 1.5 mRead from NC State Extension, one source
- Spread
- 91 cm to 2.4 mRead from NC State Extension, one source
- Water
- Average: moist, well drainedRead from NC State Extension, one source
- Flowers
- White, pink, greenRead from NC State Extension, one source
- Coldest it survives
- -34.4 °C (USDA zone 4a)Read from NC State Extension, one source
Not known yet: heat, hottest it survives.
In other languages (10)
- Chinese
- 五色草, 虉草, 鷸草
- Czech
- chrastice rákosovitá
- German
- Rohr-Glanzgras, Rohrglanzgras
- Finnish
- ruokohelpi
- French
- Alpiste faux roseau, baldingère
- Japanese
- クサヨシ
- Korean
- 갈풀
- Dutch
- rietgras, Rietgras
- Turkish
- Yem kanyaşı
- Simplified Chinese
- 虉草
Where this comes from
- Wikidata, read 2026-10-25, CC0-1.0
- Kew's checklist, read 2026-10-24, CC-BY-4.0
- NC State Extension, read 2026-10-25, fact, cited
- Wikimedia Commons, read 2026-10-25, CC BY-SA 3.0
- 3D model: Phalaris arundinacea (built for Vanagrha) by Vanagrha, own
A fact “checked by a majority of its sources” was settled by a vote of the pages it was read from, not by a person reading it; one marked “one source” rests on that page alone. Anything else not marked checked has not been checked yet. Where nothing is known, the page says so rather than guess.