Soft Cane of Many Uses

Explanation: We are deep in equatorial rainforests of central Africa, literally machete-hacking our path into remote Salonga National Park in the heart of the Congo River Basin. Adorning the dark forest floor is this tall, big-leaved, perennial herb known as Yoruba soft cane.

We encountered this plant in a previous EPOW episode, and now take a deeper look into its uses and ecology.

Yorba soft cane forms thickets about 3 ft (1 m) high in wet soils of the Afrotropical forests.

The broad leaves are used to wrap food for transport or cooking, and have many other uses such as sun shade and vessels. The stems are uses like twine for basketry, jewelry, and ornamentals. Young leaves and the fruits are consumed. The leaves, fruits, and sap are used in some locations to treat epilepsy, jaundice, poisoning, and skin pustules. And there are even more uses.

This is quite a versatile plant! Luckily, it tends to resprout readily from underground stems and tends to occur in forest gaps and in early-successional disturbed areas including plots of shifting cultivation after cutting and burning. It also provides food for native primates.

Notice the classic "drip tip" that, along with the indented leaf veins, helps channel rainwater away from the leaf surface to help prevent the leaf from rotting.

We happened upon an abandoned Bantu village
within the park, where I noticed that the walls of the huts
were covered with leaves of Yoruba soft cane.

Indeed, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, this is a
common use of the plant, to cover over mud-plastered hut walls.

And a final word about names. "Yoruba soft cane" is likely named by (or after) the Yoruba people of Nigeria. Where that name came from, that is, Yoruba, is unclear...

EPOW - Ecology Picture of the Week