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5. At least some leaves on the thickest and often tallest (up to 3 m) culms 25-45 mm in width, linear-lanceolate or lanceolate. Panicles large, usually with pinkish purple tint, developing late 4. P. altissimus
+ Culms on average thinner and shorter [than those in P. altissimus], with linear-lanceolate or lanceolate leaves 6-25 mm in width. Panicles smaller, developing 2-3 weeks earlier 6
6. Panicles at first tawnish yellow, later light yellow. Usually plants of more or less saline habitats (maritime and continental solonchak meadows, saline sands, shores of brackish water bodies) 5. P. flavescens
+ Panicles pinkish purple, more rarely greenish or towny. Plants of wide distribution 6. P. australis
Habitats: Banks of water bodies, wetlands and wet meadows, slopes and sands coated with herbaceous vegetation; frequenting roadsides and areas of human habitation.
Geographic Range: European Russia (all regions except for the Arctic and northern forest belt); Asiatic Russia: Northern Caucasus, southern East Siberia, Russian Far East (Amur R. Basin, Sakhalin I., southern Kurile Is.). Outside Russia: nearly all of Europe; Southeast, Central, and East Asia; North Africa. Described from Spain. Appears to be introduced everywhere in Asia and within the Russian forest belt.
P. altissimus is sometimes erroneously considered an ecotype of P. australis. Over many years, I have been observing a clone of this species near the railroad station Krasnoye Selo in St. Petersburg. It is strikingly different from P. australis clones also present around that station—not just by its greater height and wider leaves, but also by the time of flowering, its panicles heading 2-3 weeks later than those in P. australis.