Species of broad-leafed grass, about 1.5 to 5 m (5 to 16.5 feet) in height, with feathery flower clusters and stiff, smooth stems, occurring along the margins of lakes, fens, marshes, and streams from the Arctic to the tropics. It is one of the most widely distributed plants in the world, with fruits borne in parachute-like containers that are carried by the wind. It is also one of the most successful plants in dominating appropriate habitats due to rhizomes that rapidly infest moist-to-saturated soils of swamps, ponds, streams, and banks to the eventual exclusion of almost all other plants. Dried stems have been used for millennia as thatching and construction material, in basketry, for arrows, pens, and musical instruments. They also are harvested for their cellulose content.
