Escaped plant of Arundo donax in Southern California Arundo donax is often an invasive weed along major washes and rivers of Southern California. Here a clone has become naturalized along the Santa Clarita River in Ventura County. Shoots of such wild plants may reach six meters in height, but commonly are shorter and have stems too narrow for manufacturing musical reeds. Nonetheless, large stems of Arundo have been commercially used for musical reeds and have been gathered from the wild.

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