Phragmites frutescens H. Scholz

Raab-Straube, Eckhard von & Raus, Thomas, 2025, Euro + Med-Checklist Notulae, 18, Willdenowia 55 (1), pp. 107-144 : 124

Phragmites frutescens H. Scholz

+ Al: Albania: Prefecture of Shkodër, Municipality of Velipojë, hamlet of Pulaj, 41°52'30"N, 19°22'36"E, 1 m, wet meadow in opening of riverine forest 10 m from E bank of river Buna, 22 Oct 2024, Raus 35171 (B); ibid., NW of abandoned police station, 41°52'27"N, 19°22'37"E, 1 m, slightly ruderalized winter-wet depression c. 100 m from E bank of river Buna, 22 Oct 2024, Raus 35172 (B). – These are the first records for Albania of this somewhat spinescent reed species, which is often misunderstood as a terrestrial form of the common reed Phragmites australis (Cav.) Steud. ( Danin & al. 2001). There are good diagnostic characters to differentiate the two species (for details, see Scholz & Böhling 2000). Phragmites australis is a geophyte or hemicryptophyte that produces new unbranched, herbaceous culms around the end of March that completely die back in winter; the internodes of old culms are hidden by the leaf sheaths of the previous year, because the lamina is shed from an abscission line along the ligule, leaving the sheath at its node. Phragmites frutescens is a basally slightly woody, rhizomatous chamaephyte or phanerophyte, with new, always branched culms sprouting from the underground rhizome in June-July and dying back only distally in winter; the lower, leafless internodes are unsheathed, because the abscission line of old leaves is at the sheath base so that the lamina and sheath are shed together. The remaining “naked” internodes are mostly strikingly reddish in colour, which is usually visible from afar. The two species also differ in habitat preference: P. australis grows in or near water and prefers constant inundation (water depth of 50–100 cm; Phragmitetum australis sensu Fanelli & al. 2015 ), whereas P. frutescens prefers muddy terrestrial habitats (Schoeno-Erianthetum ravennae sensu Fanelli & al. 2015). Phragmites frutescens should be searched for in the vast estuaries of the rivers Drin, Mat, Shkumbin and Vjosa farther S in Albania; the nearest populations are known from the Kalamas delta near Igoumenitsa, just S of the Greek-Albanian border ( Strid 2024: 1133). Th. Raus