Arundo Donax

Statistically significant differences between musically good and poor reeds were found in the anatomy of the cortical vascular bundles. Good musical performance was associated with reeds with a high proportion of vascular bundles with continuous fibre rings, and bundles with a high proportion of fibre and a low proportion of xylem and phloem. Significant differences in these anatomical characteristics were also found between reeds originating from cultivated plantation plants when compared to reeds produced from agricultural windbreak plants.

Copyright 1998 Annals of Botany Company

Arundo donax is a hydrophyte, growing along lakes, streams, drains and other wet sites. It uses prodigious amounts of water, as much as 2,000L/meter of standing A. donax, to supply its incredible rate of growth (Purdue 1958; Iverson 1994). Under optimal conditions it can grow more than 5 cm per day (Purdue 1958). Arundo donax stands are among the most biologically productive of all communities. Under ideal growth conditions they can produce more than 20 tons per hectare above-ground dry mass (Perdue 1958).

Its structure, as seen below, is strings of fibers held together with lignin, which acts as a glue. This setup gives cane a quite higher strength axially (that is, moving with the fiber) than equatorially (that is, moving against the fiber).

¨Effects of Time on the Sound Quality of Cane Oboe Reeds¨, by Zachary Everett Blais