Grass or grass-like · Poaceae
Sweet woodreed
Cinna arundinacea
Sweet woodreed is recorded as native to 36 states and territories in Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants and USDA PLANTS, and recorded in 1,034 counties of those states by USDA PLANTS.
Key facts · USDA PLANTS
Sweet woodreed at a glance
- Native in
- 1,034 counties, across 36 states and territories
- Estimated cold hardiness
- Zone 4a PLANTS minimum temperature −33°F
- Mature height
- 4.9 ft PLANTS mature height
- Light and water
- Tolerates shade Low water use
Estimated cold hardiness: zone 4a. PLANTS gives a minimum temperature of −33°F; zone 4a winters bottom out at −30°F, the coldest half-zone that stays within that limit.
Sweet woodreed is recorded as native to 36 states and territories in Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants and USDA PLANTS, and recorded in 1,034 counties of those states by USDA PLANTS.
Counties where it is native
The 15 counties with the most ZIP codes among the 1,034 where it is listed.
Native counties by state
- Alabama 3 counties
- Arkansas 18 counties
- Connecticut statewide record
- Delaware 1 county
- District of Columbia 1 county
- Georgia 12 counties
- Illinois 91 counties
- Indiana 73 counties
- Iowa 29 counties
- Kansas 29 counties
- Kentucky 74 counties
- Louisiana 9 counties
- Maine 9 counties
- Massachusetts 13 counties
- Michigan 28 counties
- Minnesota 29 counties
- Mississippi 13 counties
- Missouri 54 counties
- Montana 1 county
- Nebraska 13 counties
- New Hampshire 7 counties
- New Jersey 21 counties
- New York 50 counties
- North Carolina 62 counties
- North Dakota 6 counties
- Ohio 70 counties
- Oklahoma 8 counties
- Pennsylvania 63 counties
- Rhode Island 3 counties
- South Carolina 19 counties
- Tennessee 49 counties
- Texas 2 counties
- Vermont 7 counties
- Virginia 88 counties
- West Virginia 29 counties
- Wisconsin 50 counties
Growing traits
Values from the PLANTS characteristics record. “Not recorded” means PLANTS has no value; nothing here is estimated except the zone.
Growth
- Growth habit
- Graminoid
- Duration
- Perennial
- Mature height
- 4.9 ft
- Growth rate
- Moderate
- Growth form
- Bunch
- Shape
- Erect
- Lifespan
- Long
- Active growth period
- Spring
Light and water
- Shade tolerance
- Tolerant (tolerates shade)
- Moisture use
- Low water use
- Drought tolerance
- Low
- Tolerance of waterlogged soil
- Medium
- Precipitation range
- 18 to 60 in per year
Soil
- Soil textures
- Coarse, medium and fine
- pH range
- 4 to 8.5
- Lime (CaCO₃) tolerance
- Medium
- Salinity tolerance
- None
- Fertility requirement
- Medium
- Minimum root depth
- 16 in
Climate
- Minimum temperature
- −33°F
- Estimated cold hardiness
- Zone 4a and warmer
- Minimum frost-free days
- 130
- Fire tolerance
- Low
Flowers, leaves and fruit
- Flower color
- Green
- Showy flowers
- No
- Bloom period
- Summer
- Foliage color
- Green
- Showy in fall
- No
- Keeps leaves
- No
- Fruit color
- Yellow
Other
- Toxicity
- None
- Nitrogen fixation
- None
- Nursery availability
- Routinely Available
- Family
- Poaceae
- PLANTS symbol
- CIAR2
Source & data date
- Source
- USDA NRCS PLANTS Database: county distribution records, native status and plant characteristics. CC0 (public domain dedication, per the data.gov catalog record).
- Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP): native or introduced status by state. CC BY 3.0.
- USGS US-RIIS (ver. 2.0): species listed as introduced are excluded. CC0.
- Citation
- USDA, NRCS. 2026. The PLANTS Database (https://plants.usda.gov, 11/04/2026). National Plant Data Team, Greensboro, NC USA.
- Govaerts R. (ed.) (2026). WCVP: World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Facilitated by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Data file dated 2026-06-04, http://sftp.kew.org/pub/data-repositories/WCVP/ (retrieved 2026-11-04). Paper: Govaerts R. et al. (2021) The World Checklist of Vascular Plants, a continuously updated resource for exploring global plant diversity. Scientific Data 8, 215.
- Data date
- Retrieved from PLANTS on November 4, 2026; WCVP data file dated June 4, 2026.
- Scope
- Cinna arundinacea (PLANTS symbol CIAR2).
- Method
- A species is listed when it is recorded as native to the state in Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants and USDA PLANTS, and recorded in the county by USDA PLANTS. Species PLANTS labels both native and introduced are listed separately. Full method · All sources