Earth Partners

What is NOT bamboo.

Not Horsetail (Equisetum hyemale), an invasive bog plant with sectioned canes.

Not Giant Reed (Arundo donax), an aggressive plant often found in riverbeds.

Not Bamboo Palm (Chamaedorea seifritzii), a palm whose stalks appear to have nodes like bamboo.

Not Heavenly Bamboo (Nandina domestica), a member of the barbberry family with lightly branched cane-like stems

and small leaves.

Not Lucky or Friendship Bamboo (Dracaena sanderana), a plant often grown from jointed green cuttings put in bowl

of water and pebbles.

What bamboo is. A group of woody perennial evergreens plants in the grass family Poaceae, sub family

Bambusoideae with about 1200 members.

Growing habit: Two growing habits: running (R) , clumping (C) . All have underground stems called rhizomes by which

the plant colonizes - or spreads into - an area. Clumpers stay in one place. Runners don't; they make a grove.

Running: Rhizomes can extend some distance,

are jointed with nodes at which a culm or

another rhizome can grow; some are invasive;

if unrestrained, can lift sidewalks and driveways,

enter neighbor's yard unwanted, sometimes

give bamboos a bad reputation. Rhizomes

stay near soil surface - top 12 inches -

unless soil is very loose. Then they may go

deeper. Constrain with concrete walls, plastic

barriers, or keep in containers. Rhizome tips

push their way to new territory. New culms can

come up some distance from original stand -

more than 10 ft. for larger varieties.

Clumping: Rhizomes are short, new shoots,

called culms come up close to parent culm.

Shoot

Parent Culm

Bud

Culm

Root

Bud Root

Rhizome tip

Shoot

Bud

Identification: Classification of a bamboo species

depends on observation and description of

all its parts: rhizome, culm, culm sheath,

branching habit, leaves, and finally flowers -

and consequent seeds - which are most difficult

to observe because most bamboos flower very

infrequently - 20+ years. Further, nature

plants can often look quite different from juvenile

or just-out-of-the container nursery stock.

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Bamboo from the ground up.

Preferred soil: loose, loamy, well drained, moderately

acidic.

Rhizome: Underground stem from which the

roots grow. Grows horizontally near surface.

Sometimes runner loops above ground and

goes back down.

Clumping

Running

Growing point

Active cell division

(growth)

and differentiation

takes place

here just behind

where a sheath

connects

Sheath

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Sulcus

Node

Culm

Sheath ring

or scar

Nodal ridge

Culm: The vertical stem. Solid on some species,

hollow on most except at nodes. Diameters from 1/8

in. to 12 in. They push out of the soil the diameter

they will always be. Heights from few 1 ft to 100 ft.

Grows to full height in one year, then persists for several

years increasing number or side branches and

branchlets. Larger varieties can extend one or two

feet a day when growing. Fun to watch.

Colors can change over time. Most fresh-out-ofthe-

ground culms are a shade of green from yellowgreen

to dark green. Some start light green, turn yellow,

some start green and turn black, some have

splotches, some have vertical stripes. Some favorites

are B. vulgaris for its yellow culm with "hand painted"

green stripes. There are several clumping species

whose culms come up green then age to a brownblack

with small green stripes.

When the sheath falls off or dries up, no further

linear growth takes place in culm. Branches may

grow centered behind the center of the base of the

sheath. Branches can begin forming while the sheath

is growing, or can form several years later.

Culm