India GO
Flower · Saccharum spontaneum
Kans grass
कांस
IUCN LC · Least concern
A tall wild cane of river sand and damp ground that throws up silvery-white flowering plumes once the rains end, turning river flats and wetland margins white for a few weeks.
👀 How to recognise it
Head-high clumps of narrow blue-green leaves with a white midrib. From late September the plumes open silver-white and catch the low light at either end of the day.
Where to see it
Vrindavan
Kans in flower is the sign across north India that the monsoon is over and the autumn festival season is about to start. It is also one of the plants that holds the Yamuna's sandbars together, and it is the dominant cover at the Braj wetlands. After the rains its plumes turn the Yamuna flats white for a few weeks.
Jodhpur Jhal Wetland · Keshi Ghat (in season)