Summary The correct name of the Common Reed, usually called Phragmites communis Trin. is P. australis (Cav.) Trin. ex Steudel. The Common Reed is rightly regarded as based upon a Linnaean species ( Arundo phragmites Linn., 1753), and one is inclined to forget that, owing to the operation of the tautonym rule, the current name ( Phragmites communis Trin.) dates only from 1820. This may explain why the existence of an earlier name has been overlooked.
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W. D. Clayton (1968) studied this question.