Arundinaria
Encyclopedia
Arundinaria, commonly known as the cane
Cane
Cane are either of two genera of tall, perennial grasses with flexible, woody stalks from the family Poaceae that grow throughout the world in wet soils. They are related to and may include species of bamboo. The genus Arundo is native from the Mediterranean region to the Far East. Arundinaria...
s, is the sole genus
Genus
In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...
of bamboo
Bamboo
Bamboo is a group of perennial evergreens in the true grass family Poaceae, subfamily Bambusoideae, tribe Bambuseae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family....
native to South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
and eastern North America and the only temperate bamboo in North America. The genus is endemic to the eastern United States from New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
south to Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
and west to Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
and Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
. Within this region they are found from the Coastal Plain
Coastal plain
A coastal plain is an area of flat, low-lying land adjacent to a seacoast and separated from the interior by other features. One of the world's longest coastal plains is located in eastern South America. The southwestern coastal plain of North America is notable for its species diversity...
to medium elevations in the Appalachian Mountains
Appalachian Mountains
The Appalachian Mountains #Whether the stressed vowel is or ,#Whether the "ch" is pronounced as a fricative or an affricate , and#Whether the final vowel is the monophthong or the diphthong .), often called the Appalachians, are a system of mountains in eastern North America. The Appalachians...
. Its members have running rhizome
Rhizome
In botany and dendrology, a rhizome is a characteristically horizontal stem of a plant that is usually found underground, often sending out roots and shoots from its nodes...
s and are woody and tree-like, attaining heights from 0.5 up to 8 metres. They produce seeds only rarely and usually reproduce vegetatively, forming large genets. When seed production does occur, the colony usually dies afterwards. Among the distinctive features of the canes is a fan-like cluster of leaves at the top of new stems called a top knot.
The genus Arundinaria has a complex taxonomic
Taxonomy
Taxonomy is the science of identifying and naming species, and arranging them into a classification. The field of taxonomy, sometimes referred to as "biological taxonomy", revolves around the description and use of taxonomic units, known as taxa...
history spanning over two centuries. The canes of the southeastern U.S. were originally described as two species of reed grasses in the genus Arundo
Arundo
Arundo is a genus of two or three species of cane: stout, perennial grasses from the family Poaceae, native to the Mediterranean region east to India, China and Japan. They grow to 3–6 m tall, occasionally to 10 m, with leaves 30-60 cm long and 3-6 cm broad.- Species :* Arundo...
by Thomas Walter in 1788. André Michaux
André Michaux
André Michaux was a French botanist and explorer.-Biography:Michaux was born in Satory, now part of Versailles, Yvelines. After the death of his wife within a year of their marriage he took up the study of botany and was a student of Bernard de Jussieu...
, working in 1803 and unaware of Walter's work, correctly interpreted the canes as a distinct group and created the genus Arundinaria with one species. However, neither of these researchers left enough information to their successors, leading to confusion surrounding the identity of the species they had described. The later workers G.H.E. Muhlenberg and A.S. Hitchcock each changed the circumscription
Circumscription (taxonomy)
In taxonomy, circumscription is the definition of the limits of a taxonomic group of organisms. One goal of taxonomy is to achieve a stable circumscription for every taxonomic group. Achieving stability can be simple or difficult....
s of the species within the group, but it wasn't until epitypes, type specimens that clarify older ambiguous names, were applied to Walter's and Michaux's species in 2009 that the taxonomy could be stabilised. Meanwhile, many similar Asian and even African bamboos were placed in this genus under a very broad concept for the group. Preliminary phylogenetic studies in 2006 using molecular and morphological
Morphology (biology)
In biology, morphology is a branch of bioscience dealing with the study of the form and structure of organisms and their specific structural features....
evidence have suggested that the genus forms three natural species confined to the southeastern United States.
Early explorers in the U.S. described vast monotypic
Monotypic
In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group with only one biological type. The term's usage differs slightly between botany and zoology. The term monotypic has a separate use in conservation biology, monotypic habitat, regarding species habitat conversion eliminating biodiversity and...
stands of Arundinaria called canebrake
Canebrake
Canebrake is an English noun meaning an area of land with a thick dense growth of cane, sugarcane, exotic bamboo, or similar plant material.Canebrake may also refer to:Places in the United States of America:*Canebrake...
s that were especially common in river lowland
Lowland
In physical geography, a lowland is any broad expanse of land with a general low level. The term is thus applied to the landward portion of the upward slope from oceanic depths to continental highlands, to a region of depression in the interior of a mountainous region, to a plain of denudation, or...
s. These often covered hundreds of thousands of hectare
Hectare
The hectare is a metric unit of area defined as 10,000 square metres , and primarily used in the measurement of land. In 1795, when the metric system was introduced, the are was defined as being 100 square metres and the hectare was thus 100 ares or 1/100 km2...
s. These have declined significantly due to clearing, farming and fire suppression. Prior to the European colonization of the Americas
European colonization of the Americas
The start of the European colonization of the Americas is typically dated to 1492. The first Europeans to reach the Americas were the Vikings during the 11th century, who established several colonies in Greenland and one short-lived settlement in present day Newfoundland...
, cane was an extremely important resource for local Native Americans
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
. The plant was used to make everything from houses and weapons to jewelry and medicines. It was used extensively as a fuel, and parts of the plant were eaten. The canebreaks also provided ideal land for crops, habitat for wild game, and year-round forage for livestock. After colonisation, cane lost its importance due to the destruction and decline of canebreaks, forced relocation of indigenous people
Indian Removal
Indian removal was a nineteenth century policy of the government of the United States to relocate Native American tribes living east of the Mississippi River to lands west of the river...
, and the availability of superior technology from abroad.
Systematics
Plants currently treated in the genus Arundinaria were first described scientifically by Thomas Walter in his Flora Caroliniana, 1788. However, Walter did not recognise the canes as bambooBamboo
Bamboo is a group of perennial evergreens in the true grass family Poaceae, subfamily Bambusoideae, tribe Bambuseae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family....
, and instead placed them in the superficially similar, but only distantly related grass genus Arundo
Arundo
Arundo is a genus of two or three species of cane: stout, perennial grasses from the family Poaceae, native to the Mediterranean region east to India, China and Japan. They grow to 3–6 m tall, occasionally to 10 m, with leaves 30-60 cm long and 3-6 cm broad.- Species :* Arundo...
. He described two species: Arundo gigantea Walt. and Arundo tecta Walt.. In 1803, the French botanist André Michaux
André Michaux
André Michaux was a French botanist and explorer.-Biography:Michaux was born in Satory, now part of Versailles, Yvelines. After the death of his wife within a year of their marriage he took up the study of botany and was a student of Bernard de Jussieu...
, unaware of the flora prepared by Walter, also published a description of the canes he encountered. Michaux recognised only one species, but created a new monotypic
Monotypic
In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group with only one biological type. The term's usage differs slightly between botany and zoology. The term monotypic has a separate use in conservation biology, monotypic habitat, regarding species habitat conversion eliminating biodiversity and...
genus for it: Arundinaria macrosperma Michx.. The name of the genus he used is derived from the Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
word used by Walter for the plants he described; namely arundo, meaning "reed
Phragmites
Phragmites, the Common reed, is a large perennial grass found in wetlands throughout temperate and tropical regions of the world. Phragmites australis is sometimes regarded as the sole species of the genus Phragmites, though some botanists divide Phragmites australis into three or four species...
".
A decade later in 1813, G.H.E. Muhlenberg noticed the affinities between the two previous authors' work and transferred Walter's two species to Michaux's new genus, yielding a combinatio nova
Combinatio nova
Combinatio nova, abbreviated comb. nov., is Latin for "new combination".It is used in life sciences literature when a new name is introduced, e.g. when Calymmatobacterium granulomatis was renamed Klebsiella granulomatis it was referred to as Klebsiella granulomatis comb. nov. to denote it is a new...
for each, namely Arundinaria gigantea (Walt.) Muhl. and Arundinaria tecta (Walt.) Muhl.. Muhlenberg considered the genus to consist of these two species in addition to Arundinaria macrosperma Michx.. After over a century, A. S. Hitchcock
A. S. Hitchcock
Albert Spear Hitchcock was an important American botanist and agrostologist. Specializing in grasses, he was the chief botanist for the USDA from 1928 until his death. He authored over 250 works during his lifetime....
reviewed the taxonomic state of the North American bamboos in 1951. He interpreted Michaux's Arundinaria macrosperma Michx. as a synonym
Synonym (taxonomy)
In scientific nomenclature, a synonym is a scientific name that is or was used for a taxon of organisms that also goes by a different scientific name. For example, Linnaeus was the first to give a scientific name to the Norway spruce, which he called Pinus abies...
of Walter's Arundinaria gigantea (Walt.) Muhl., reducing the genus to two species.
Most recently, in 2006 researchers from Iowa State University
Iowa State University
Iowa State University of Science and Technology, more commonly known as Iowa State University , is a public land-grant and space-grant research university located in Ames, Iowa, United States. Iowa State has produced astronauts, scientists, and Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winners, along with a host of...
and the University of North Carolina
University of North Carolina
Chartered in 1789, the University of North Carolina was one of the first public universities in the United States and the only one to graduate students in the eighteenth century...
recognised and described a third species, Arundinaria appalachiana
Arundinaria appalachiana
Arundinaria appalachiana, commonly known as hill cane, is a woody bamboo native to the Appalachian Mountains in the southeastern United States. The plant was elevated to the species level in 2006 based on new morphological and genetic information and was previously treated as a variety of...
Triplett, Weakley & L.G. Clark. The plants that form this species were previously thought to form part of the natural genetic diversity
Genetic diversity
Genetic diversity, the level of biodiversity, refers to the total number of genetic characteristics in the genetic makeup of a species. It is distinguished from genetic variability, which describes the tendency of genetic characteristics to vary....
of Arundinaria gigantea (Walt.) Muhl., but upon in depth analysis using modern phylogenetic methods based on morphology and amplified fragment length polymorphism
Amplified fragment length polymorphism
Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism PCR is a PCR-based tool used in genetics research, DNA fingerprinting, and in the practice of genetic engineering. Developed in the early 1990s by Keygene, AFLP uses restriction enzymes to digest genomic DNA, followed by ligation of adaptors to the sticky...
s, the researchers determined that the canes form three species.
Despite the work done by Walter and Michaux, current researchers have had difficulty interpreting their circumscriptions
Circumscription (taxonomy)
In taxonomy, circumscription is the definition of the limits of a taxonomic group of organisms. One goal of taxonomy is to achieve a stable circumscription for every taxonomic group. Achieving stability can be simple or difficult....
of species boundaries. Walter designated no type specimens, and his Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
protologues, which describe the species, are vague and include features that could be any of the three species currently recognised. Michaux did designate a type specimen for the species he described, but it does not include enough of the plant to determine with confidence which species it represents, while his protologues were likewise not detailed enough to avoid ambiguity. Later researchers, such as Muhlenberg and Hitchcock, were thus effectively unable to resolve the taxonomy satisfactorily. In 2009, epitypes
Holotype
A holotype is a single physical example of an organism, known to have been used when the species was formally described. It is either the single such physical example or one of several such, but explicitly designated as the holotype...
, a new kind of type first allowed by the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature in 2006 in order to clarify older ambiguous types, were designated for Arundo gigantea Walt. and Arundinaria macrosperma Michx.. This essentially allows current and future researchers to know precisely what is being discussed when the scientific names applied to these plants are used.
The genus is currently most commonly treated in a sensu stricto, making it an exclusively North American genus with three species: Arundinaria gigantea (Walt.) Muhl., Arundinaria tecta (Walt.) Muhl., and Arundinaria appalachiana
Arundinaria appalachiana
Arundinaria appalachiana, commonly known as hill cane, is a woody bamboo native to the Appalachian Mountains in the southeastern United States. The plant was elevated to the species level in 2006 based on new morphological and genetic information and was previously treated as a variety of...
Triplett, Weakley & L.G. Clark. However, in the past, and uncommonly in the present, the genus has been seen in a sensu lato. These interpretations include a number of Old World
Old World
The Old World consists of those parts of the world known to classical antiquity and the European Middle Ages. It is used in the context of, and contrast with, the "New World" ....
genera such as Bashania, Oligostachyum
Oligostachyum
Oligostachyum is a genus of bamboo originating from coastal China. The genus is sometimes considered a synonym of Arundinaria....
and Sarocalamus. More outdated systems included the large genera Fargesia
Fargesia
Fargesia is a genus of medium to small mountain clumping bamboos, found in alpine conifer forests of East Asia. They are known in Chinese as jian zhu , meaning "arrow bamboo". They can be found in China south to Vietnam and west to the eastern slopes of the Himalayas...
and Sasa
Sasa (genus)
Sasa is a genus of running bamboo. These species have at most one branch per node....
, giving the genus upwards of 400 species. When Asian taxa are included it is the only bamboo genus to occur in both the Old and New World
New World
The New World is one of the names used for the Western Hemisphere, specifically America and sometimes Oceania . The term originated in the late 15th century, when America had been recently discovered by European explorers, expanding the geographical horizon of the people of the European middle...
s.
Use
EthnobotanistsEthnobotany
Ethnobotany is the scientific study of the relationships that exist between people and plants....
consider cane to have been extremely important to Native American
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
s in what is now the Southeastern United States
Southeastern United States
The Southeastern United States, colloquially referred to as the Southeast, is the eastern portion of the Southern United States. It is one of the most populous regions in the United States of America....
before European colonisation
European colonization of the Americas
The start of the European colonization of the Americas is typically dated to 1492. The first Europeans to reach the Americas were the Vikings during the 11th century, who established several colonies in Greenland and one short-lived settlement in present day Newfoundland...
. The plant was used to make structures, weapons, fishing equipment, jewelry, baskets, musical instruments, furniture, boats, pipe stems, and medicines. Arundinaria gigantea, or river cane, has historically been used to construct Native American flute
Native American flute
The Native American flute has achieved some measure of fame for its distinctive sound, used in a variety of New Age and world music recordings. The instrument was originally very personal; its music was played without accompaniment in courtship, healing, meditation, and spiritual rituals. Now it...
s, particularly among tribes of the Eastern Woodlands. The Atakapa
Atakapa
The Atakapan people are a Southeastern culture of Native American tribes who spoke Atakapa and historically lived along the Gulf of Mexico. They called themselves the Ishak, pronounced "ee-SHAK", which translates as "The People". Although the people were decimated by infectious disease after...
, Muscogee Creek, Choctaw
Choctaw
The Choctaw are a Native American people originally from the Southeastern United States...
, Cherokee
Cherokee
The Cherokee are a Native American people historically settled in the Southeastern United States . Linguistically, they are part of the Iroquoian language family...
, and other Southeastern tribes have traditionally used this material for mat and basket weaving, and the Chitimacha
Chitimacha
The Chitimacha are a Native American federally recognized tribe that lives in the U.S. state of Louisiana, mainly in St. Mary Parish. They currently number about 720 people. The Chitimacha language is a language isolate.- History :The Chitimacha's historic home was the southern Louisiana coast...
and Eastern Band Cherokee still widely weave with rivercane today.
Food uses include flour, cereal, and even "asparagus" of young shoots; however, caution should be used whenever foraging for cane as, the extremely toxic fungus Ergot
Ergot
Ergot or ergot fungi refers to a group of fungi of the genus Claviceps. The most prominent member of this group is Claviceps purpurea. This fungus grows on rye and related plants, and produces alkaloids that can cause ergotism in humans and other mammals who consume grains contaminated with its...
(Claviceps spp.) has been known to colonize the seeds. Ergot-infected plants will have pink or purplish blotches or growths about the size of a seed or several times larger.