Looks like Bamboo

[ruckus]

Hello,

I have a spot in a big creek bottom in Southern Indiana with this stuff that looks like Bamboo. It is always green and has that distinct sectioning you would see with Bamboo. However, it is all only about 3 feet tall. It also looks like the deer have been eating it. It is relatively soft, pliable and hollow.

I wish I had a pic. Does anyone know what this is? Maybe a reed of some type? It isn't growing along the creek though.

[Texas Ranger]

Tall blue stem?

[Jay C. White Cloud]

Hey Ruckus,

With out seeing it, I couldn't be a 100% but what you described is one of the bamboos.  Remember it is just a grass species that got big, so it's found almost everywhere.

Regards,

jay

[pineywoods]

Sounds like what we always called switch cane. common throughout the south, only gets 3 or 4 ft tall. I think the name came from it being used for disciplinary purposes on unruly kids. I can testify that it was quite effective.  :(

[ruckus]

Maybe it is just bamboo? Is bamboo fairly tender when it is short? I swear the deer are eating it? Do deer eat bamboo? They have trails through it to where it will not grow. It does not have any top flower, leaves, branches, etc.

It is not that blue stem. I googled a pic of it.

[Tim Lea]

I agree with pineywoods I think its switch cane, and yes deer will eat it and like it. They will keep the limbs and leafs picked off of it..

[ruckus]

Probably why there is really nothing on them on the top or sides. Clearly looks like it is nipped off. They are keeping it mowed down at about 3 feet tall....unless that is all the tall it gets.

[Jay C. White Cloud]

Arundinaria there are different species is a "Switch Cane" and it is a bamboo.  The young leaves and shoots are eaten by many animals including "cane rats," very common in the South along river bottoms.

[SPIKER]

There are also MANY types/species of Bamboo with several that are snort in that 3~5' range.   Normally it would have had to be transplanted there from somewhere else.   could someone have had a garden there at one time or any DUMPED soil/root systems could have happened in the past?

Mark

[Jay C. White Cloud]

Hi Spiker,

Are you saying this one is an invasive species?  I know we have native varieties.  How do you know this isn't common native River Cane? 

[SPIKER]

Hi Spiker,

Are you saying this one is an invasive species?  I know we have native varieties.  How do you know this isn't common native River Cane?

Just offering a possibility there Jay C., all we have not is a basic eyewitness description without pictures.   It could be river cane, or an exotic bamboo refugee.   Up here we have some thing we called Snake Grass that grown about 24" high & looks like a green snake.  We always called it snake grass as the local black snakes loved to hide in it.   It has segmentation like bamboo without much for leaves about 1/4" ~ 3/8" in diameter. 

Mark

[WDH]

The native switch cane here is Arundanaria tecta.

[ruckus]

I will take a pic next time out. My thought was that it got washed down during a flood of the creek and started growing there. I don't know if bamboo can be transported like that...although I would assume so.

[ruckus]

I just googled a pic.....I think it is in fact snake grass. Looks exactly like it from my memory. Interesting to see it growing in a large patch with deer trails running through it. Do they eat it? Sure seems like there are no tops on them so I guess they are being eaten off.

[SPIKER]

Ruckus:  Well guess my 2nd shot in the dark hit the nail on the head.   according to my old memory mom said it was BAD for animals to eat, (She said Horses so probably equates to Cows and Deer but not 100%)   On E-How it also said bad for critters and gave directions for killing it.

http://www.ehow.com/how_6437437_kill-snake-grass.html

Anyhow if it is Snake Grass it will spread about like Bamboo and keep going.   Along the RR Tracks back home in swampy area they stuff was thick & matted all way into deep woods. 

Mark

[Dodgy Loner]

What they're calling snakegrass is more commonly called horsetail (Equisetum). It's a neat plant and not one that I would be trying to kill.