Phragmites australis is known as the common reed, marsh reed, or roseau and is common in marsh habitats throughout the world. Dr. White and I have been working on Phragmites australis for the past 8-9 years mainly focusing on populations in the Southeast particularly in the Mississippi River delta. We have determined that populations along the Gulf Coast from Tivoli, TX (near Corpus Christi) to Apalachicola, FL share the same unique, multilocus isozymic phenotype. In other words, they appear to be genetically identical. The exceptions are the populations in the Mississippi River delta. In the delta, there are two dominant multilocus isozymic phenotypes that are very different from the Gulf Coast phenotype. Both along the Gulf Coast and within the delta propagation and spread of Phragmites appears to be predominantly vegetative or asexual. An interesting question to consider is whether the patterns of colonization and spread of the clones can be determined using a technique for detecting cryptic genetic differences. This is known as Randomly Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) variation. This requires PCR using random 10-mer primers. We have adjusted the procedure in order to provide more or less consistent results. Brian Mailey, Vita Venezia and I are currently analyzing Gulf Coast populations from Texas to New Orleans and from New Orleans to Apalachicola. I would also like to analyze clonal populations in the Mississippi River delta.