Switch Cane in the Francis Marion National Forest

Switch cane (Arundinaria tecta) used to cover vast areas of the southeastern United States. Given the chance, the plant will form impenetrable canebrakes, like this one I was trying to “swim” through in South Carolina’s Francis Marion National Forest. According to John James Audubon, the King rail (https://www.askaudubon.net/birds/300) likes to eat the seeds of Switch cane. And there’s no question King rails travel through canebrakes much more easily than the one through which I thrashed in the Francis Marion.