Title image above is copyright © Kristi Ellinopoullos
First published 15th March 2026
I cut a roughly 2 m cane of Cultivar 1 that other day and was absolutely transfixed by its top piece:
copyright © Kristi Ellinopoullos
Zooming in:
copyright © Kristi Ellinopoullos
Not too palatable here:
copyright © Kristi Ellinopoullos
Close-ups of different views in rotation:
copyright © Kristi Ellinopoullos
copyright © Kristi Ellinopoullos
copyright © Kristi Ellinopoullos
copyright © Kristi Ellinopoullos
It’s an aerial shooting, rooting segment that even sent roots into itself:
copyright © Kristi Ellinopoullos
So how did this come about?! This is best explained with still more photos — but of different canes to help piece everything together!
It all began one day when I first cut that stem however long ago, just above the green part of the lower stem in the photos above, where it’s now somewhat grey. That cut subsequently dried up and turned grey, much like in this photo of a different cut stem:
copyright © Kristi Ellinopoullos
The stem in the photo above was cut about middle of an internode. Look closely at any of the photos of the stem subject of this post, and you’ll see that that piece had been cut just above a node.
For those unfamiliar with this, the nodes in sugarcane are much like those of bamboo: thick rings between each segment. Each of those segments between the nodes is botanically called the internode. The node of any plant is where the buds are found and where leaves and branches attach to a stem (leaves and branches arise from the buds).
(The photo below is from this earlier post):
copyright © Kristi Ellinopoullos
This original cut just above a node has made all the difference. For that node was still being supplied with nutrients and hormones, and both the secondary shoot bud and the primordial root buds left dormancy to, well, shoot and root
;
(The photo below is from this earlier post):
copyright © Kristi Ellinopoullos
The two labelled photos above are of a mahogany-red sugarcane I call Cultivar 2, simply because it was the second one I acquired.
The subject of this post, a more brown-green variety, is what I call Cultivar 1, and this one has far, far more propensity to put out secondary shoots than Cultivar 2. It is also quicker to root when propagating, and will even send out roots along an uncut cane. It didn’t take long to find this example on an intact cane to include in this post:
copyright © Kristi Ellinopoullos
Let’s step back a bit — here’s another cane, with just a shoot so far. But those root primordia are just bursting to get in on the action too!
copyright © Kristi Ellinopoullos
Here’s yet another cane, but this time cut a bit above the node like the subject of this post. It too has a secondary shoot and some roots are just beginning to form:. But notice how the cut end is grey and not so lively looking?
copyright © Kristi Ellinopoullos
That bit will eventually rot down. Let’s compare that photo above with one from a similar angle of our original post subject photo:
copyright © Kristi Ellinopoullos
Hopefully the photos of the four other stems will help tell the story of how this one came to be at all.
It all began when our stem subject was first cut just above the node. A secondary shoot probably grew first, followed by roots.
The cut was so close to the node, that the node turned grey and rotted out.
But before and during this, the shoot kept growing and developed into a proper cane with nodes and internodes, albeit somewhat compressed.
The growing shoot possibly suppressed
Those roots possibly tapped the sugars and nutrients of the original cane, and this may have triggered still more primordia higher up to break dormancy to either feed the cane further, or to provide structural support, or both.
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