ribbon cane

English

Noun

ribbon cane (countable and uncountable, plural ribbon canes)

1. (Southern US) Sugar cane; specifically, striped varieties of sugar cane grown in the southern United States.
   • 1803, Robert Charles Dallas, The History of the Maroons‎^[1], London: Longman and Rees, Volume 2, Letter 18, p. 336:

     The ribbon cane […] is called by the French rouge et d’or, being longitudinally striped yellow and deep red. It grows as high as the Bourbon, but is slenderer, and of course resists wind less.

   • 1930, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Mule Bone‎^[2], HarperCollins, published 1991, act I, page 49:

     Say, Matt, gimme a jint or two of dat green cane—dis ribbon cane is hard.

   • 1944, Katherine Anne Porter, “The Old Order”, in The Leaning Tower and Other Stories‎^[3], New York: Harcourt Brace, page 55:

     “We’ll grow fine ribbon cane here. The soil is perfect for it. We’ll have all the sugar we want. But we must be patient.”

   • 1966, J. J. Phillips, chapter 1, in Mojo Hand‎^[4], Berkeley: City Miner Books, published 1985, page 8:

     The voice she heard was slowly rough and delicately brutal, like stones being rattled in a can of ribbon cane syrup.

   • 1994, Joe R. Lansdale, “Bubba Ho-Tep”, in The Best of Joe R. Lansdale‎^[5], San Francisco: Tachyon Publications, published 2010, pages 51–52:

     His knees clacked together like stalks of ribbon cane rattling in a high wind.

Usage notes

The term ribbon cane has been misapplied to varieties of sorghum used to produce syrup.