BOTANICAL AND ECOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS
SPECIES: Arundinaria gigantea | Cane 



GENERAL BOTANICAL CHARACTERISTICS : 
Cane is a native, woody, perennial, rhizomatous grass.  The aerial stems
range from 2 to 26 feet (0.6-8 m) tall, making cane the largest native
grass in the United States.  Spikelets have 8 to 12 flowers, and
generally occur in racemes or panicles but may be solitary [9].  Seeds
are brown, ellipsoid, and 0.27 to 0.31 inch (7-8 mm) long [17].  Unlike
most other grasses, cane possesses evergreen stems which survive for up
to 10 years.  Cane is easily distinguished from other grasses by its
stout, hollow, jointed stems [8].


RAUNKIAER LIFE FORM : 
   Phanerophyte
   Geophyte


REGENERATION PROCESSES : 
Reproduction is primarily vegetative from robust rhizomes.  Seed
production is sparse and unpredictable; plants are monocarpic [9,17,19].
  


SITE CHARACTERISTICS : 
Cane inhabits low-lying, moist to wet sites, including low woodlands of
various mixtures, woodlands on mesic and submesic slopes and uplands,
river and stream banks, shrub-tree bogs and bays, sloughs, bayous and
pocosins, and mesic to wet savannahs [9,21].  Pocosins represent the
lower limit of site quality tolerated by cane.

Surface soils are organic and highly acid [19].  They may be peat or
sands to sandy loams darkened by humus [4,22].  The water level remains
at or near the soil surface for extended periods during the wet season
but falls well below the soil surface later in the growing season
[16,19,22].

Cane is usually intermixed with shrubs, but in more favorable
situations, often forms dense stands or breaks.  Brakes composed of
large cane occur in fertile, alluvial river bottoms sufficiently
elevated so that flooding is of short duration.  Elsewhere, cane tends
to be shorter and smaller in diameter [9].

Associated overstory species include red maple (Acer rubrum),
loblolly-bay (Gordonia lasianthus), Ohio buckeye (Aesculus glabra),
honey locust (Gleditsia triacanthos), coffee tree (Gymnocladus dioicus),
and pawpaw (Asimina triloba).  Understory species include laurelleaf
greenbrier (Smilax laurifolia), inkberry (Ilex glabra), large gallberry
(I. coriacea), zenobia (Zenobia pulverulenta), swamp cyrilla (Cyrilla
racemiflora), southern bayberry (Myrica cerifera), sweet pepperbush
(Clethra alnifolia), and saw-palmetto (Serenoa repens).


SUCCESSIONAL STATUS : 
The canebrake community is fire-dependent, forming an ecotone
transitional between savannas and wetlands such as pocosin, bay-gall,
bay forest, or swamp forest.  Canebrakes may alternate with these types
on the same soil if fire frequency changes [6].  Following fire in the
pocosins of North Carolina, cane (A. g. ssp. tecta) quickly assumes
dominance over the more common shrubs (inkberry and swamp cyrilla) [22].

Cane does not spread rapidly into either early or late successional
forest types.  It has been hypothesized that it was formerly
concentrated in ecotonal areas, along with Ohio buckeye, honey locust,
coffee tree, and pawpaw, between the most frequently disturbed areas and
the less disturbed forests of sugar maples (Acer saccharinum), hickories
(Carya sp.), ashes (Fraxinus sp.), and oaks (Quercus sp.).  Such
ecotonal vegetation may have been relatively stable, being maintained by
small-scale oscillation of forest boundaries rather than long-term
directional succession.  The reproductive characteristics of cane
(strong vegetative regeneration and poor seed dispersal) make it better
suited to stable regimes with moderate disturbance [2].


SEASONAL DEVELOPMENT : 
Foliage production occurs between late April and early July in North
Carolina, with green foliage held well into winter and even until the
following spring in protected sites [19].  Flowering occurs from April
to July in the northern extent of its range, and from March to April in
Florida [3,17].  While individual stems may live 10 years, the average
stand age remains near 3 or 4 years as a result of gradual mortality and
replacement [12].

Related categories for Species: Arundinaria gigantea | Cane