VALUE AND USE
SPECIES: Panicum hemitomon | Maidencane 



WOOD PRODUCTS VALUE : 
NO-ENTRY


IMPORTANCE TO LIVESTOCK AND WILDLIFE : 
Maidencane has high yield and forage quality [17,24].  It is preferred
cattle forage in south Florida [50], being prominent in cattle diets
during the summer [24].  Many maidencane flatwood marshes in Florida are
used for cattle grazing [27].

Maidencane in south Florida is an important deer food [50].

Maidencane marshes in Florida are used extensively by the endangered
Florida panther [27].

Studies of muskrat use of maidencane habitat differ in their results.
Of the five important plant communities in Everglades National Park,
round-tailed muskrats seem to be best adapted to the maidencane marsh
habitat of wet prairies.  This habitat was highly utilized in 1974 and
supported the greatest round-tailed muskrat densities.  Round-tailed
muskrats showed positive selectivity for maidencane marsh, though this
was the least abundant plant association in wet prairies of Everglades
National Park.  Maidencane was used both for food and for nest materials
[45].  However, maidencane can become so abundant that the habitat
becomes less suitable for some wildlife.  Common muskrats occupy
floating freshwater marshes in southeastern Louisiana.  As maidencane
dominance increases, the carrying capacity for common muskrats and
waterfowl declines [31].  Maidencane has been considered a serious pest
in waterfowl habitat.  It is a very strong competitor with duck food
plants across its range [32].

Maidencane vegetation is used as habitat by mammals, amphibians, birds
and reptiles.  In Leon County, Florida, maidencane vegetation harbors
eastern woodrats, northern leopard frogs, black swamp snakes, bullfrogs,
green anoles, and spring peepers.  Resident birds included great egrets,
northern bobwhites, northern cardinals, American crows, common moorhens,
great blue herons, little blue herons, northern mockingbirds, common
grackles, red-winged blackbirds, and snowy egrets.  American alligators
use the maidencane-covered shoreline [48].

Maidencane in peripheral areas of baldcypress (Taxodium distichum)
swamps and ponds in Alachua and Bradford counties, Florida, was used as
habitat by round-tailed muskrats, marsh rabbits, cotton rats (Sigmodon
spp.), eastern woodrats, Virginia opossums, and white-tailed deer [19].

Maidencane is an important component of open marshes in the Okefenokee
Swamp.  These marshes and their included ponds and lakes are the only
habitats used by sandhill cranes, American bitterns, least bitterns,
common moorhens, and round-tailed muskrats.  The marshes are the
preferred habitat of American alligators, little blue herons, glossy
ibises, and ospreys [7].

Maidencane wet prairies in south Florida harbor abundant invertebrates
and other small aquatic animals, and have the highest density of
small-fish populations of any south Florida freshwater vegetative type.
These help maintain the wading-bird populations of south Florida [50].

Male Florida largemouth bass in Orange Lake, Alachua County, Florida, a
lake without a firm inorganic substrate, used the firm detritus in
emergent maidencane as a nest substrate much more often than would be
expected from the availability of maidencane vegetation [4].


PALATABILITY : 
Maidencane is an important forage grass which becomes tougher and less
palatable as it matures [28].


NUTRITIONAL VALUE : 
Chemical analysis of maidencane showed it was especially high in crude
protein [28].


COVER VALUE : 
NO-ENTRY


VALUE FOR REHABILITATION OF DISTURBED SITES : 
Maidencane is important as a soil binder in some areas because of its
extensive rhizome system [17].

Maidencane can be used for controlling shoreline erosion of lakes,
ponds, and irrigation reservoirs.  It is an aquatic to semiaquatic grass
that will spread from the shoreline both toward and away from the water.
The stems, sterile shoots, leaves, and rhizomes form a dense vegetative
mat holding the soil in place.  Maidencane was measured as spreading 24
to 30 inches (60-76 cm) per growing season.  Maidencane was compared
with five other grasses at the Soil Conservation Service's plant
materials center in Coffeeville, Mississippi; it was found to be far
superior to the others in withstanding erosion [3,16].


OTHER USES AND VALUES : 
NO-ENTRY


MANAGEMENT CONSIDERATIONS : 
Maidencane is sometimes considered a weed in moist cultivated fields
[20].

Maidencane is occasionally harvested for hay.  On most sites it produces
4 to 5 tons of high-quality forage per acre. For maximum production and
feed quality, no more than 50 percent of the current year's growth by
weight should be grazed [28].  Maidencane is a decreaser in response to
grazing [27].  In southern Louisiana, fresh marsh was dominated by
maidencane until heavily grazed by cattle [34].

Maidencane disappears from Florida marshes in which the seasonal
drawdown has been eliminated.  This occurs whether the water level is
raised, stabilized, or lowered [27,50].  Long periods of inundation
rapidly shift wet prairies to slough communities without maidencane;
much increased dry periods can result in invasion of sawgrass and lesser
maidencane presence [45].

Dominant stands of maidencane have appeared as a major component of the
Everglades National Park flora and may be increasing as a result of
drainage [21,45].

Maidencane was not adversely affected by secondarily treated sewage
treatment plant wastewater that was used to irrigate two cypress domes
in north Florida [11].

Related categories for Species: Panicum hemitomon | Maidencane