ARUNDINARIA GIGANTEA

 

        8' height, Sun, -10 degrees F Minimum, Runner.  Canebreak, Southern cane, Cane reed.

        Our plants in California turn completely brown in winter, requiring an annual cutting down to the ground.  David Andrews in Maryland reports minor leaf damage at 0 degrees & major leaf damage at -8 degrees F.  However, Tim Meier in Wilmette, Illinois had a heavily mulched plant evergreen down to -25 degrees F. for short periods, suggesting strongly different responses to different climates, or the existence of sub-varieties.  Jean Harrington in St Pete, Florida says it is slow-growing, but tolerates their heat.

        1" maximum diameter culms, the underside of the leaves are usually fuzzy.  Plant is more like a large grass with purple stems than a Bamboo. Tough & dependable, it makes an inspiring burst of spring growth but is not spectacular during summer, fall & winter.

        Hermine - "Canebreak is related to a Bamboo in China because the continents were all once connected in one big land lump.  In prehistoric times it grew as an understory grass from somewhere around Louisiana all the way up over what is now the North Pole & down into China.  The Choctaw Indian baskets made with it in Louisiana were WATERPROOF!  Up until the 20th century it still grew in vast thickets from Maryland to Texas as far north as Ohio & Indiana & it's demise was recorded in the 30's in the song 'There Ain't No More Cane on the Brazos.'"