Traditionally, chanter reeds are made from “cane”, which is obtained from a plant called “giant reed”, or Arduno Donax.
I’ve been trying to source some domestic cane for about a month now. I know it grows in California, and asked some friends if they could help. One of my friends got his botanist friend in California into a chat with me about maybe being able to help.
Turns out this stuff is really not something you want to grow in the US. It’s got some nasty effects of fire spread, and is considered a weed.
It also turns out botanists are just as nerdy as anyone else, and have a crowdsourced site for identifying life. On that site, I quickly located all kinds of verified Arduno Donax right here in New Mexico. For instance, there’s a really big one by a graveyard in Las Cruces.
This is a weed, so it’s unlikely anybody would be upset about me cutting some shoots down. In fact, most cities would probably be happy if I removed the whole plant. Since winter is apparently the best time to harvest, I’ll wait patiently until I can go chop down some weeds to make reeds.
Maybe I’ll go find this one by the graveyard, and call my reeds “cañas de los muertos”.