This habitat was highly utilized in 1974 and supported the greatest round-tailed muskrat densities. Round-tailed muskrats showed positive selectivity for maidencane marsh, though this was the least abundant plant association in wet prairies of Everglades National Park. However, maidencane can become so abundant that the habitat becomes less suitable for some wildlife. Common muskrats occupy floating freshwater marshes in southeastern Louisiana. Maidencane has been considered a serious pest in waterfowl habitat.
Maidencane vegetation is used as habitat by mammals, amphibians, birds and reptiles.
In Leon County, Florida, maidencane vegetation harbors eastern woodrats, northern leopard frogs, black swamp snakes, bullfrogs, green anoles, and spring peepers. Resident birds included great egrets, northern bobwhites, northern cardinals, American crows, common moorhens, great blue herons, little blue herons, northern mockingbirds, common grackles, red-winged blackbirds, and snowy egrets. Maidencane is an important component of open marshes in the Okefenokee Swamp. These marshes and their included ponds and lakes are the only habitats used by sandhill cranes, American bitterns, least bitterns, common moorhens, and round-tailed muskrats. Maidencane wet prairies in south Florida harbor abundant invertebrates and other small aquatic animals, and have the highest density of small-fish populations of any south Florida freshwater vegetative type.