ABSTRACT
Although I have no idea how old I was, I still remember my first encounter with a canebrake. My grandparents lived just above the floodplain of the Tennessee River in a remote part of west-central Kentucky. Beside their home was a small creek that we had to cross to visit them, walking when the water level was low, in a boat when the water level was high. Just above floodline on one bank, we always passed a large stand of canes. When I was a fairly young child, I ventured to explore that thicket alone and found a mysterious green wonderland. Some of the cane stems were 5 cm (2 inches) in diameter and reached 4.5 to 6 m (15 to 20 feet) tall. At the time, I had no idea of their famous reputation as sleeping places for black bears (Ursus americanus) or they would have been even more exciting. Looking back, I have to wonder if part of the mystery was the same feeling that indigenous people in the southeast had about this arguably most useful of American grasses.
