Rumbled Reed

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

When I became more closely interested in the flora of our planet, then, to my great regret, I discovered that the beautiful plant that we called the Reed in childhood and at the risk of getting bogged down in the swamp was tearing its attractive brown inflorescences, not the Reed at all. I had to rummage through the literature in order to correctly arrange several, somewhat similar to each other, plants on the classification shelves invented by meticulous botanists

Along with the "true"

Reed (Latin Scirpus), mistakenly call a number of other plants Reed, from which we will choose two:

Reed (Latin Phragmites) and

Cattail (lat. Typha)

For a clearer understanding of the plant world, it should be noted that, when meeting the names of plants from one word, we are dealing not with one plant, but with a whole community of genetically related plants, united by botanists into a genus. A genus can consist of just one plant species (monotypic), or it can include a huge number of species. To distinguish one species from another, a specific epithet is added to the genus name. For example, the genus of plants Reed includes the following species: Lake reed (Latin Scirpus lacustris), Forest reed (Latin Scirpus sylvaticus) and others, more than 50 plant species in total. Genetically similar plant genera are combined into larger communities called "families".

Now, having sorted

Reed

Cane and

Rogoz by genera and families, let's try to figure out how they are similar to each other, and in what they are completely different representatives of the plant kingdom.

Reed

In the Russian folk song, in which trees bent from the wind and excess of feelings and the reeds rustled, judging by the "crumpled grass", it was about the real Kamysh, growing not only along the banks of reservoirs, but also in the forest. Indeed, among more than 50 plant species of the genus Reed, belonging to the family

Sedge (lat. Cyperaceae), there is Forest reed (Latin Scirpus sylvaticus), which, however, is also a lover of wet places, but still in the forest area:).

Yes, and a tall (up to 2.5 meters) plant with a triangular stem, broad-linear leaves and a branchy, spreading apical inflorescence, in my opinion, is much easier to make noise than Rogoz, which in my childhood was called Reed. But about him a little below.

Cane

Plants of the genus Reed are similar to Reed only in their linear leaves. As for the high (up to 5 meters) plant stem, it is hollow inside, which is a sign of plants

family Cereals (lat. Gramineae), to which the genus Reed belongs. While in plants of the Sedge family, to which the genus Reed belongs, as a rule, the stem is not hollow and often has a triangular cross-section.

Differ in appearance and inflorescences of the Reed, which is a dense economic panicle.

Although plants of the genus Reed are widespread on the land of the Northern Hemisphere, they cannot boast of a great variety. Today, there are only 4 species of plants of this genus.

Rogoz

So we got to the culprit of this article. Its brown inflorescences-cobs have always been associated with the word "Reed". Although it was always difficult to imagine the noise of such a Reed, with ribbon-like long leaves and an inflorescence-cob, which, despite its density, is very soft, even velvety. Moreover, this "Kamysh" was growing, standing "knee-deep" in swampy water, in which you won't make much noise. Thick brown cobs temptingly beckoned to themselves, but only the most dexterous and courageous dared to go hunting for them.

It turned out that this plant is not even a close relative of Kamysh. Plants of the genus Rogoz, numbering in its ranks 30 species, belong to the same name