Arundinaria tecta

Arundinaria tecta, also known as switchcane or river cane, is part of the Arundinaria genus of bamboo species. Native to the Southeastern United States, the Arundinaria genus is considered to have the only temperate bamboos and has many species that can be hard to differentiate. A. tecta is often confused with A. gigantea and A. appalachiana and may need the combined effort of range, morphology, and genetics to distinguish between the species. Regardless, A. tecta and the Arundinaria genus as a whole have many significant cultural and environmental implications in the Southeastern United States.

Arundinaria tecta, or switchcane, is a bamboo species native to the Southeast United States, first studied in 1813. Arundinaria tecta is very similar in appearance to many other Arundinaria species, making it hard to distinguish between species. It serves as host to several butterfly species. The species typically occurs in palustrine wetlands, swamps, small to medium blackwater rivers, on deep peat in pocosins, and in small seepages with organic soils. The species is only known to occur in the Atlantic Plain, Gulf Coastal Plain, and Mississippi Embayment, though it was earlier thought to exist in the Piedmont and Southern Appalachians as well. Specimens from the uplands are now thought to be a separate but morphologically similar species, Arundinaria appalachiana.