Aaron, there are 3 native canes(bamboo) in the US, all grow in the Southeast. River cane(Arundaneria gigantia), Switch cane(A. tecta) and Hill cane(A. appalachiana). River cane grows to about 15' tall, 3/4" to 1" in diameter, has a large center hole, thin walls, pronounced nodes and a pronounced sulcus(indentation above the node). It makes a good arrow but not as good as the other two. Switch cane grows to 6" to 7" with smaller center hole and thicker walls . The nodes aren't as pronounces as river cane and these make very good arrows. Hill cane was recently re-designated as it's own species. It is similar to switch cane but the nodes are less pronounced with a small center hole, thicker walls, the internodes are round and almost no sulcus. It is the only native cane that is deciduous, loosing it's leaves during the winter.
I prefer hill cane not only because it grows along the creek that runs through my property but the guy that taught me to build shoot and cane arrows(Art Butner, aka artcher1) liked it the best of any cane he used.
I think most folks don't know the differences in these canes so they call all of it "river cane". Also, there are lots of Asian bamboos that were introduced into the US, some make good arrows and some don't because of their size.
