Description

General - loosely tufted, sweet-scented perennial; stems slender, 60 - 150 cm tall.

Leaves - limp, flat, 5 - 15 mm wide, narrow quickly to sharp tip, rough., spread at right angles to stem; ligules hairy, 5 - 10 mm long.

Flower Cluster - open, nodding, green or yellowish panicle, 10 - 30 cm long, with clusters of slender branches; spikelets 1 - flowered, 3 - 4 mm long, detach as unit at maturity; glumes narrow, slender-pointed, 3 - 3.5 mm long; lemmas similar to glumes, with tiny awn or awnless.

Habitat

Moist woods, meadows, stream banks, and disturbed areas; widespread across Northwestern Ontario's boreal forest; north and west to southern N.W.T. and southern Alaska; circumpolar.

Notes

Drooping wood-reed increases tremendously on disturbed sites. Fresh wood- reed leaves can be burned slowly to produce a mosquito-repelling smoke. The name Cinna was take from the Greek kinni, which referred to an unknown grass. The species name latifolia is derived from the Latin latus, 'broad', and folium, 'leaf', in reference to the wide leaves of this grass.

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