Cane of Provence

The canes of Provence ( Arundo donax ) is a herbaceous plant of the family of the Poaceae, subfamily of the Arundinoideae.

Description

It is a graminaceous characteristic of the watery places of the Mediterranean regions. It has large frayed sheets, falling down, glaucous, and of the final panicles of épillets of pale color green with purplished.

It resembles a Roseau or with a Bambou but the nobility does not have any. Its height is of 1 m to 6 m according to the varieties. In winter, it takes an unpleasant ornament with the desiccated aspect, and its thatches have neither resistance nor the side alluring of those of the bamboo.

The variety Arundo donax versicolor by its mixed side is gravitational.

Characteristics

reproductive bodies:

Standard of inflorescence: panicle of épillets
distribution of the sexes: hermaphrodite (has cheesecloths and pistil)
Type of pollination: anémogame (by the wind)
Period of flowering: September at October

seed:

Standard of fruit: Caryopse (standard dry fruit of graminaceous)
Mode of dissemination: anémochore (by the wind)

Habitat and distribution:

standard Habitat: Mediterranean roselières
Surface of distribution: cosmopolitan (thermo)

given according to: Julve, pH., 1998 FF. - Baseflor. Botanical, ecological and chorologic index of the flora of France. Version: April 23rd, 2004.

Uses

Often used in hedges windshield in the South of France, it is liked in sheltered and quite sunny situation, with a wet and rather sandy ground, but drained well the winter.

On the industrial sphere, Arundo donax probably provides best the Anche S of the world and when you hear a Clarinette, a Saxophone, a Hautbois, a Basson or very other instrument of this type, there are strong chances that its Anche comes roselières from Provence. The company of musical instruments Selmer, founded in Paris by the clarinettist Henri Selmer in Paris in 1885, began its activity with the production of sheers (stopped in the years 1980). The clarinettist Eugene Van Doren bases in 1905 the company Vandoren today world leader on the professional market. The head office of Vandoren and the studios of test for the musicians are always in Paris, and the factory with Bormes the Mimosas in the VAr. In the middle of the roselières are all the workshops of sheers and nozzles for clarinets and saxophones, a production distributed in more than 100 countries. Curiously, the industrial production started with Los Angeles: they are Americans who saw in the Années 1920 the party that one could draw from the " reed with musique" and are made deliver the raw material coming from the area hyèroise to manufacture sheers simple, double, baritone etc Ainsi was born Rico International , currently the first factor of sheers in the world, Roso France (Hyères) being its leading vendor (400 000 reeds per annum). One finds also sheers resulting from wild reeds, the company Marca (Manufacture of Sheers and Roseaux of the Riviera) of Ollioules in the VAr would be the only company in the world to use only the latter for his sheers exported towards about fifty country. And for this reason for a few years, the Festival of the Sheer has honoured in the roselières hyèroises the fabulous destiny with the cane with Provence.

One can also note the use of these reeds in the clothes industry of Calame S , instruments of writing and Calligraphie (in particular Eastern).

Because of its speed of growth, the cane of Provence east and was object of studies for the raw material supply for paper pulp, or fuel, in particular in Florida. Indeed, Technip gained a contract of engineering of preliminary draft detailed at Biomass Investment Group (BIG) for its project of powerplant exploiting the biomass and functioning in closed circuit. This power station located in Florida will use the cane of Provence like fuel for the energy production. The contract also includes the design and the supply of a unit of demonstration, on the scale 1/10ème.

This project will be the first operation of great scale exploiting the combustion of a crop plant especially for the electrical production. This energy source resulting from the biomass is renewable. It presents environmental assets, of which absorption at the time of the cycle of photosynthesis of the cane of Provence of a quantity of CO2 equivalent to that emitted during its combustion, of the respectful methods of culture of the grounds, and weak gas emissions pollutants during combustion.

The center of operations and engineering of Technip with Claremont (California) will carry out this contract. The power station will use the process owner of BIG to convert the biomass into liquid fuel which will supply a turbine with combustion actuating an alternator.

It will be also about the first powerplant with combustion which will propose with suppliers of energy or other customers of the supply agreements of long-term “green energy”.

Varieties

Arundo donax variegata
Arundo donax versicolor

Photographs

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