Felix Stith in front of an extremely rare canebrake over 20 feet tall in Western North Carolina. (Submitted)
Toe Talk is a monthly article series supported by local watershed partners highlighting watershed and community news. The Toe-Cane Watershed Coordinator position is working to improve water quality and gain associated economic benefits in the watershed by providing education and technical resources and implementing on-the-ground projects. Visit www.blueridgercd.com/ for updates on projects, and helpful documents for addressing water-related issues.
River cane, or giant cane, is a culturally significant, useful and ecologically important plant native to Western North Carolina. Its scientific name is Arundinaria gigantea. It is the northernmost native bamboo in the Americas, with a range from southern New Jersey and Illinois to northern Florida and west to eastern Texas and Oklahoma.
River cane is in the bamboo family and technically a perennial grass. It is often confused for non-native planted and invasive bamboo. It grows from hard, tough rhizomes (rhizomes are similar to roots, but are underground stems that grow horizontally, usually above the roots) forming dense colonies. The stems are between three and 25 feet tall, and up to three inches wide. River cane often grows in flood plains along rivers and streams, wetlands, and fertile, soiled uplands. It can spend lots of time underwater but doesn’t grow well directly in water. The colonies formed by cane are known as “canebrakes” and are their own ecosystem. Just as other grasses, river cane usually reproduces by sprouting new stem shoots from rhizomes. River cane will sporadically flower and produce seeds, maybe once every 30 or 40 years, with a flowering period lasting for about a year. Little is known about the river cane flowering cycle. Usually, when river cane flowers, the whole canebrake, and even neighboring canebrakes, will all flower at the same time.
River cane tolerates wildland fire, and just as many species, such as oak, benefited from historically (pre-European settlement) frequent natural low-intensity wildland fires.
Two other temperate species of cane grow in North America, and both exist in North Carolina. These are switch cane (Arundinaria tecta) and hill cane (Arundinaria appalachiana). Both switch and hill cane are much smaller than river cane, not growing more than six feet tall. Switch cane grows in the coastal plain, in floodplains, while hill cane lives in the mountains and foothills and often grows in drier mesic sites in uplands, rocky bluffs and slopes. Like river cane, hill and switch cane are fire-adapted plants.
Almost all cane has been removed for human development and is now left to occasional small patches. Only one or two percent of river cane remains, and the unique ecosystem it forms is endangered. In some areas in Kentucky and the gulf coast, there were canebrakes miles long and wide called cane savannahs. These cane savannahs are now gone. River cane forms a critical habitat and food source for many animals. With the loss of river cane, wildlife numbers also decreased. Several types of birds, reptiles, mammals, and insects depended heavily on these canebrakes and savannahs for habitat and food, such as the likely extinct Bachman’s Warbler, Florida Panther and the American bison, which is now extinct from eastern North America.
River cane forms an amazing riparian buffer along rivers and streams. This helps keep topsoil and retains nutrients on land, which are great for growing plants and crops but are bad for water quality and aquatic organisms. It also protects river banks and surrounding land from erosion and flooding. In large canebrakes, the roots and rhizomes are so thick that they often make a small levee from sediment, which further slows runoff and sediment from entering the stream.
River cane also has cultural impacts. It is the base for many place names, such as the Cane River in Yancey County, countless Cane Creeks in Western North Carolina, such as the one that flows through Bakersville, Caney Bottom in Transylvania County and many more.
River cane is an essential and useful plant for the Cherokee. River cane is used to make incredibly strong and beautiful baskets, blowguns, knives, spears, bows and arrows, flutes, candles, building materials, sleeping mats, fishing traps and poles, tobacco pipes and medicine, among other things. The Cherokee is a living culture, and many river cane items are still made following traditional methods.
Blowguns were historically a handy tool for hunting small game that had an effective range of more than 60 feet. They are made by cutting a six-to-eight foot-long river cane piece, burning out the joints (like common ornamental bamboo, the cane is segmented), and straightening the cane. Burning out the joints requires skill. To do this, an ember is dropped into the cane until it burns the joint, and is pushed through to the next chamber. If the ember is left too long in one segment, it burns the side of the cane, potentially ruining the blowgun. The charred section remains then need to be scraped away, so the inside is perfectly round. This is done using a small stone attached to a long stick. After smoothing out the entire interior of the blowgun, it is lubricated by rubbing a piece of fresh green cane on the inside. Green cane is used because it contains natural oils that work well for lubricant. The blowgun is then straightened by placing it over a fire, where the oils in the river cane heat up and allow the blowgun to be flexed and hardened.
Darts are made by whittling hardwood dart shafts and attaching fletching. The fletching is usually made by harvesting, pressing, and drying thistledown. The thistledown is attached to the dart shaft using sinew or string. Historically blowgun darts were not poisoned because the Cherokee thought it would contaminate the small game meat.
Preserving river cane is ecologically important, but also helps recognize and preserve the history of this plant. Landowners can participate in the restoration of native river cane. River cane can be bought from some nurseries in Western North Carolina and can be transplanted in early Spring from existing river cane patches. When landowners plant river cane, it benefits wildlife, but helps to protect property from erosion and soil loss, especially if planted along a stream or river.
Felix Stith is Toe-Cane Watershed Coordinator for Blue Ridge Resource Conservation & Development. He may be reached by email at toecane.edu@gmail.com or by calling 828-279-2453.