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Rivercane Rivercane (Arundinaria gigantea) grows in patches on the banks of both Rocky Branch (on your left as you’re walking away from old U.S. 441) and the Soque River. One of two native species of bamboo found in North America, it ranges as far north as the Ohio River. Only a tiny remnant remains of once-vast stands of rivercane. When William Bartram toured the southern colonies in 1775 (approximately; dates are vague in his Travels), he noted huge stands in river bottoms and swamps across the present-day South. Near St. Marks, Florida, he observed “perhaps, the most extensive canebreak [his spelling] that is to be seen on the face of the whole earth.” The canebrake rolled to the horizon like an ocean, said Bartram, and seemed “alive with cattle, deer, and turkeys.” The canes grew so thick that the only way to traverse them was to hack out a road. As Bartram saw, rivercane occurs most often along watercourses. It usually spreads underground by rhizomes and can grow so thickly that it crowds out other plants. Another factor may explain its widespread presence in bottomlands: Native Americans. With their rich soils, fresh water, and wide variety of food sources, Native Americans in the Southeast built their towns almost exclusively along the rivers. Rivercane was immensely important to Indians as a building material for houses, as raw material for baskets and mats, and, when harvests failed, as a source of flour when ground. In most southeastern tribes, plant cultivation was women’s work, and women were highly skilled at it. They likely propagated rivercane not by planting it, but by burning and clearing near their homesites, creating promising conditions for its growth. Europeans learned to recognize rivercane as a marker for good soil. Rivercane’s value went farther than that, though. It offered desirable, nutritious browse year-round for cattle and pigs and also provided them shelter. Until less than a century ago in many parts of the South, livestock lived in a condition of semi-wildness and ranged freely. The feeding, rooting and trampling of cows and pigs began to destroy the canebrakes. This was hardly a problem for Europeans: cattle herding was often the leading edge of settlement. As browse for domestic animals was destroyed, the herders and their livestock moved on. Meanwhile, the lands they left behind, including the old canebrakes, were laid bare and made more accessible for the planting of crops. This is the story of how rivercane once thrived and now survives on small scraps of land. It is a plant whose presence at the Greenway tells a story. There are other plants, too, each with a story to tell..
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