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United States / Grow / common reed

common reed (Phragmites australis)
Photo: (c) Zach Earl, some rights reserved (CC BY) (CC BY), via iNaturalist. Species-typical, not necessarily this cultivar.

common reed

Phragmites australis · Poaceae · also called Phragmites grass · Wikipedia

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Enter your ZIP to see whether this is legal to plant in your state, and whether it survives your winter.

Common reed is highly flammable; keep it away from structures.

The USDA Forest Service Northeastern Area and state Firewise programs rate common reed “Not Firewise,” category four on their four-level scale. The programs describe dead foliage retained all winter, fast spread and seed easily carried by wind. Ohio State University Extension reaches the same practical conclusion, giving the plant a “VH” rating at the top of its five-point flammability scale. Ohio State also describes it as invasive, especially in moist soils, and tolerant of full sun.

A laboratory result adds a measurement, not another recommendation. FLAMITS reports a calorific value of 4,096.55 kilocalories per kilogram for litter dried before testing in a calorimeter. Because its measurements cover different variables, devices, and plant parts without a shared threshold, it does not turn that number into a resistant-or-flammable verdict.

Common reed is a grass reaching about 10 feet at maturity. The clearest reason for concern is its persistent dead winter foliage, backed by two fire-safety sources that place it at the unsafe end of their scales.

Fire-resistant grasss instead

Form
grass
Mature height
~10 ft
Light
Full sun
Water need
moderate
Rated in
Global; Ohio / Midwest; eastern US
On this lot

1. Fire evidence and conditions

Fire evidence
Highly flammable — location does not change the cited classification.
Placement evidence
2 source placement records; source schemes remain separate.
Evidence regions
Global; Ohio / Midwest; eastern US
Typed publication scope: 1 scope across 1 cited fire source
  • Firewise Landscaping (OSU Extension Bulletin 921) · Official scoped edition
    • OH; partial normalized coverage · 2006-03-01

      Ohio State University Extension Bulletin 921 is an Ohio publication that describes Ohio fire seasons and landscape conditions and labels nativity to Ohio. FireApproved publishes 352 exact source-owning plant records from its eight rated tables. This historical publication scope does not assert current extension endorsement or that a listed plant suits every Ohio site.

2. Why this plant is relevant here

State distribution
Documented in AL, AR, AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, DE, FL, GA, HI, IA, ID, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, MS, MT, NC, ND, NE, NH, NJ, NM, NV, NY, OH, OK, OR, PA, PR, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WI, WV, WY.
Native range
Current cited native range in AL, AR, AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, DE, FL, GA, IA, ID, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, MS, MT, NC, ND, NE, NH, NJ, NM, NV, NY, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WI, WV, WY.
Introduced / established
3 sourced range or established records. This is not an invasive warning.
USDA hardiness
Documented minimum 3a; no upper limit is documented.

3. Legal, ecological, and broader status

Legal-list status
4 legal-list records; the Place chip matches exact scope.
Reported invasive here
1 ecological invasive report.
How to read this page

The status above is computed from the cited rows below: independent recommendations can support a fire-resistant result, an avoid row can produce keep-away, and disagreement stays visible as conflict. Placement notes preserve each source’s own scheme rather than translating unlike rules into one scale. This is evidence about a plant, not permission to plant it in every part of the defensible space; Zone 0 remains noncombustible.

Native and introduced range evidence

These are exact U.S. botanical-area records from the cited range source. Native and introduced describe biogeographic relationship, not fire performance or planting approval. Doubtful and extinct rows stay visible but do not count as current presence.

Current native

48

exact source areas

Current introduced

3

exact source areas

Qualified

0

doubtful or extinct source rows

48 native source areas · World Checklist of Vascular Plants, version 16 v16, as of 2026-06-04
  • Alabama (AL)
  • Arkansas (AR)
  • Arizona (AZ)
  • California (CA)
  • Colorado (CO)
  • Connecticut (CT)
  • District of Columbia (DC)
  • Delaware (DE)
  • Florida (FL)
  • Georgia (GA)
  • Iowa (IA)
  • Idaho (ID)
  • Illinois (IL)
  • Indiana (IN)
  • Kansas (KS)
  • Kentucky (KY)
  • Louisiana (LA)
  • Massachusetts (MA)
  • Maryland (MD)
  • Maine (ME)
  • Michigan (MI)
  • Minnesota (MN)
  • Missouri (MO)
  • Mississippi (MS)
  • Montana (MT)
  • North Carolina (NC)
  • North Dakota (ND)
  • Nebraska (NE)
  • New Hampshire (NH)
  • New Jersey (NJ)
  • New Mexico (NM)
  • Nevada (NV)
  • New York (NY)
  • Ohio (OH)
  • Oklahoma (OK)
  • Oregon (OR)
  • Pennsylvania (PA)
  • Rhode I. (RI)
  • South Dakota (SD)
  • Tennessee (TN)
  • Texas (TX)
  • Utah (UT)
  • Virginia (VA)
  • Vermont (VT)
  • Washington (WA)
  • Wisconsin (WI)
  • West Virginia (WV)
  • Wyoming (WY)
3 introduced source areas · World Checklist of Vascular Plants, version 16 v16, as of 2026-06-04
  • Hawaii (HI)
  • Puerto Rico (PR)
  • South Carolina (SC)

The lossless worldwide derivative is retained once in the research corpus; object pages repeat only exact U.S. areas needed by the local lens. The JSON twin carries the same page assertions.

Plant hardiness evidence

These values describe the plant source. Your ZIP zone comes from the separate 2023 USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map. Whole-zone values stay whole-zone, and a single unresolved value is not treated as a tolerance range. Different source boundaries stay separate: overlapping statements are compared independently, while only ranges with no shared zone are called a conflict.

Where its sources say to plant it

Placement rules below use each source's own distances or named zones, tied to its rating. They are not interchangeable with the directory's current Zone 0 guidance.

The evidence

Grouped by what each source concluded. Primary evidence rated the plant itself (a lab, field program, or original curation); corroboration compiled or republished another source's rating and resolves to its root lineage.

Avoids (2)

Listed without a rating (3)
Corroboration (3 rows from 1 source)

  • FLAMITS: FLAMmability plant traiTS database — Dryad / Global Ecology and Biogeography · Dryad version 9 · original source Corroboration Trait database lineage: meta-aggregator

    3 cited rows from this source; its identity, lineage and tier are stated once.

    • Primary study Zhang2011: Zhang, Z., Zhang, H., & Zhou, D. (2011). Flammability characterisation of grassland species of Songhua Jiang-Nen Jiang Plain (China) using thermal analysis. Fire Safety Journal, 46, 283-288.

      Shared row context: plant part litter; fuel live; predrying yes; site Zhang2011-1; sampling november.

      • “calorific value (kcal/kg): 4096.55”

        FLAMITS record 14640; Combustibility measurement; device calorimeter.

      • “maximum flame temperature (°C): 427.28”

        FLAMITS record 14650; Combustibility measurement; device thermal analyzer.

      • “burning duration (s): 50.07”

        FLAMITS record 14660; Sustainability measurement; device thermal analyzer.

Fire-resistant grasss instead

fox sedge
Carex vulpinoidea tall fescue
Festuca arundinacea tall fescue
Lolium arundinaceum woolgrass
Scirpus cyperinus prairie cordgrass
Spartina pectinata longhair sedge
Carex comosa

Fire-resistant grasss listed above

Guides that discuss this plant

Last verified 2026-08-23. JSON (CC BY 4.0)

Profiles: USDA PLANTS · GBIF · iNaturalist · Wikidata · Wikipedia · ITIS

Phragmites australis (Phragmites grass). FireApproved. https://fireapproved.com/plants/phragmites-australis/. Last verified 2026-08-23.