Rice Paddy Marsh Reed

Rice Paddy Marsh Reed

　　The reeds in our county are mainly produced in the Rice Paddy Marsh, with a small amount also coming from Dongping Lake. Before 1990, the Rice Paddy Marsh had about 25,000 mu of reed fields, with an average yield of over 3,000 kilograms per mu, and the total annual reed production was around 100,000 tons, ranking among the top in the province.

　　Reeds are perennial tall herbaceous plants of the Gramineae family with rhizomes, growing to heights between 1.5 meters and 5 meters. They have hollow, cylindrical stems, often with white powder below the nodes; leaves are alternate, relatively wide, lanceolate, and tough; flowers are arranged in large, dense, broom-like panicles at the top of the stem; the fruit is an oval-shaped caryopsis; the rhizome creeps along the ground, long and thick, with hollow internodes and a few fibrous roots growing from the nodes.

　　Most of the reeds in the Rice Paddy Marsh are wild. Thanks to the marsh’s thick mud bottom, excellent water quality, abundant sunlight, and humid climate, the reeds grow particularly vigorously. Typically, they reach a height of about 4 meters, with stems 0.5–2 centimeters or more in diameter. In autumn, across the Rice Paddy Marsh, which is the main reed-producing area, one can see vast, endless reed marshes, with reed flowers like clouds or snow. It’s hard not to be reminded of the Tang Dynasty poet Yong Yuzhi’s poem “Reed Flowers”: “Along the banks and through the sand, / Each branch sways like a wave. / Under the bright moon, all is white as snow, / Making it hard to find the fisherman’s hut.” After the reeds are harvested, villages around the Rice Paddy Marsh are connected by stacks of reeds, resembling the Great Wall; every household is busy day and night weaving mats and screens.

　　In addition to local consumption, the reeds produced in the Rice Paddy Marsh were once widely sold to Hebei, Henan, Liaoning, and other regions. Various reed-woven products were also exported to Japan, South Korea, and Southeast Asian countries. Many farmers in the lake area became prosperous by cultivating reeds. However, in recent years, due to the shrinking water surface of the Rice Paddy Marsh, reed production has been greatly affected. Currently, there are only about 2,000 mu of reed fields in the entire marsh, and their growth is far less vigorous than before. Protective measures need to be taken to restore and develop this important aquatic resource.

　　In addition to the Rice Paddy Marsh, Dongping Lake also produces reeds, but both the quality and yield are inferior to those of the Rice Paddy Marsh reeds.

　　Reeds have a wide range of uses. They are high-quality raw material for papermaking; reed roots can be used in medicine, with effects such as clearing stomach heat, reducing irritability, and promoting fluid production to relieve thirst; reed shoots can be used as a vegetable; reed flower spikes can be made into brooms, reed fluff can be used as pillow stuffing, and the stems can be used to build houses, weave reed mats, make packaging materials, and also serve to protect embankments by preventing floods and blocking waves.