Stansbury Mountains, Great Salt Lake and the Common Reed (invasive subspecies)

Description:

June 7, 2012 looking mainly into Tooele County, Utah.While there is also a native strain, these plants represent the invasive strain. Both were previously recognized taxonomically as Phragmites australis* (which goes to show just how important genotypes are, i.e. the seeds from the same "species" are not simply the same) but the invasive strain as depicted here (which has bushier seed heads and darker leaves that are more persistent and lower exposed culms that are not reddish in fall) is subsp. australis (and the native subtaxon is subsp. americanus).