On Mon, 04 Dec 2006 11:17:52 GMT, Andy Schecter
wrote:

P. van Rijckevorsel wrote:
Which pictures would these be?

Oops.

http://flickr.com/photos/andy_s/312942829/

On the evidence of your pictures and your statement that they grow in
wet places I am sure they are the common reed Phragmites communis,
which P. van Rijckevorsel mentioned.

http://www.kasumigaura.go.jp/hyakkajiten/6/6_06.html

http://www.nju.edu.cn/njuc/plantsweb...enke/luwei.htm

One of the world's most useful plants - thatching, making spears,
making rafts, food . . .

http://www.pfaf.org/database/plants....ites+australis