Exploding hill cane
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Description: Arundinaria appalachiana, or hill cane, is a native woody bamboo in the souteastern US. We have noticed an explosion of this rivercane around some of our field sites in the piedmont region of North Carolina. Up until about 2 years ago, the understory was clear with grass. In the last two years, the cane has exploded throughout the understory. I have heard that this as happened in some other Piedmont locations as well. Why?
Page creator's name:
Page creator's contact info: pcollins@mitchellcc.edu
Created: 17 Sep 2014 18:06
Updated: 06 Jan 2015 21:36
Comments: 02 Jan 2015 02:59
#Comments: 2
After thorough investigation, I have come up with a plausible explanation for these plants. They're related to the devastation of environmental health in the US. Directly related.
That in and of itself is not specific enough to explain why this particular species has increased in abundance rather than decreased in abundance, nor why it has changed in abundance only in the last few years.
However, if there are enough long term records one could test whether this species fluctuated in abundance by similar amounts historically (maybe even over a longer term with pollen counts) and correlate its abundance changes with changes in land use, other human activities, climate, other species, etc. That could rule out some hypotheses and suggest others. Large spatial scale surveys could be useful in the same way