Distribution and Composition of Canebrakes
Authored By: J. Schoonover, B. Helms
Farrelly (1984) documented that Giant cane can grow under an array of environmental conditions, ranging from sea level in the Coastal Plain regions to 670 meters in the Appalachian Mountains and across a diverse suite of soil conditions from highly acidic to sandy. A map of the distribution of canebrakes in the southeastern U.S. is available at the USDA Plants Database. Presently canebrakes are largely confined to bottomlands along the Mississippi Delta, swamplands of Virginia, North Carolina, and in the Ocmulgee Basin in Georgia (Meanley 1972; Platt and Brantley 1997).
Associated Species
Cane is an important component of many deciduous and evergreen forests. It has been associated with Carolina bays, pocosins, pine barrens, upland forests, bottomland hardwood forests, and swamp forests (Platt and Brantley 1997). Canebrakes have also been documented to grow with several different associated species. In eastern North Carolina, Hughes (1966) found that pond pine (Pinus serotina) was the chief overstory associated with cane. Walkup (1991) lists several overstory species with cane including: red maple (Acer rubrum), loblolly-bay (Gordonia lasianthus), Ohio buckeye (Aesculus glabra), honey locust (Gleditsia triacanthos), Kentucky coffee tree (Gymnocladus dioicus), and pawpaw (Asminina triloba). Understory species included laurel greenbrier (Smilax laurifolia), inkberry (Ilex glabra), large gallberry (I. coriacea), zenobia (Zenobia pulverulenta), swamp cyrilla (Cyrilla racemiflora), southern waxmyrtle (Myrica cerifera), sweet pepperbush (Clethra alnifolia), and saw-palmetto (Serenoa repens). Schoonover and Williard (2003) noted trumpet creeper (Campsis radicans) and poison ivy (Toxicodendron radicans) as common understory species in a southern Illinois canebrake.
In the Coastal Plain of the Southeast, canebrakes are an early successional sere, a transition between savannahs and other wetlands such as pocosins, bay forests, and swamp forests (Wells and Whitford 1976). Depending upon the variability of fire frequency and the flood regime, canebrake communities may alternate with these other community types. Further, canebrakes are often natural ecotones between wetland communities and upland forests. Intense annual burning of swamp forests generally produces savannahs whereas cane and shrub pocosins are produced from less frequent burn regimes (Wells and Whitford 1976). In the absence of fire, canebrakes will eventually succeed to bay or swamp forest (Wells and Whitford 1976)
- Farrelly, D. 1984. The book of bamboo. San Francisco, CA: Sierra Club Books. 335 p p.
- Hughes, R.H. 1966. Fire ecology of canebrakes. In: Proceedings of the Tall Timbers Fire Ecology Conference. 149-158.
- Meanley, B. 1966. Some observations on habitats of the Swainson’s warbler. The Living Bird. 5: 151-165.
- Platt, S.G. and Brantley, C.G. 1997. Canebrakes: an ecological and historical perspective. Castanea. 62(1): 8-21.
- Schoonover, J.E., K.W.J. Williard. 2003. Groundwater nitrate reduction in giant cane and forest riparian zones. Journal of the American Water Resources Association. 39(2): 347-354.
- Walkup, C. 1991. Species Arundinarea gigantea. USDA Forest Service. Fire Effects Information Systems.
- Wells, B.W. and L.A. Whitford. 1976. History of streamhead swamp forests, pocosins, and savannahs in the Southeast. Journal of the Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society. 92: 148-150.
- Wells, Carol A. [G.]; Whigham, Dennis; Lieth, Helmut. 1972. Investigation of mineral nutrient cycling in upland Piedmont forest. J. Elisha Mitchell Sci. Soc. 88: 66-78.
