Biological invasions can have significant impacts on ecosystems across the globe, such that the mechanisms driving invasions has been widely studied. Additionally, invasive species offer insights into the mechanisms of community assembly and species interactions. The common reed, Phragmites australis is a clonal wetland plant species that occurs widely throughout North American wetlands and includes both native and exotic, invasive haplotypes. Due to their close phylogenetic relationship, comparison between the invasive and native lineages of Phragmites offers a unique opportunity to study the functional traits that impact invasive success with fewer confounding genetic differences that would be observed in more distant taxa. In eastern U.S. populations, invasive Phragmites exhibits higher biomass production, ramet density, specific leaf area, relative growth rate, chlorophyll per leaf, and photosynthetic rate than the native lineage, which may be key drivers to its invasion success. The extent to which the microbial community affects performance in native and invasive is of increasing interest to researchers. Most plant species serve as a host to endophytic fungi that asymptomatically colonize various tissues and organs which sometimes result in increased growth rate and productivity, increased tolerance to stress, or decreased herbivory. Additionally mycorrhizal symbioses could affect the rates of nutrient uptake in plants that support them. If invasive species are differentially associated with fungal symbionts relative to their native counterparts, these symbioses could play an important role in their expansion.