Phragmites communis, a reed used throughout the world for thatching roofs, builds soil on pond edges by catching dead plant material and dirt on its thick tangled rhizome roots eventually shrinking water surface area. McNary pond lost many acres to this plant in the last twenty years.

The plume in full flower makes an attractive addition to dried bouquets. The hollow stem dries into a hard rigid stick woven into mats by Native Peoples for walls of their dwellings. Leaves were used for baskets and floor mats.

Believed by some botantists to have originated in the Old World, the reeds could have been transported by earliest explorers.