Bamboos are a diverse group of mostly evergreen perennial flowering plants making up the subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family, in the case of Dendrocalamus sinicus individual culms reaching a length of 46 meters, up to 36 centimeters in thickness and a weight of up to 450 kilograms. The internodes of bamboos can also be of great length. Kinabaluchloa wrayi has internodes up to 2.5 meters in length. and Arthrostylidium schomburgkii with lower internodes up to 5 meters in length, exceeded in length only by papyrus. By contrast, the culms of the tiny bamboo Raddiella vanessiae of the savannas of French Guiana are only 10–20 millimeters in length by about two millimeters in width. The origin of the word "bamboo" is uncertain, but it probably comes from the Dutch or Portuguese language, which originally borrowed it from Malay or Kannada.
Arundinaria is a genus of bamboo in the grass family the members of which are referred to generally as cane. Arundinaria is the only bamboo native to North America, with a native range from Maryland south to Florida and west to the southern Ohio Valley and Texas. Within this region Arundinaria canes are found from the Coastal Plain to medium elevations in the Appalachian Mountains.
Bambusa vulgaris, common bamboo, is an open-clump type bamboo species. It is native to Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Southeast Asia, and to the province of Yunnan in southern China, but it has been widely cultivated in many other places and has become naturalized in several regions. Among bamboo species, it is one of the largest and most easily recognized.
Phyllostachys heteroclada, the fishscale bamboo, also known as "water bamboo", is a running bamboo. The water bamboo name comes from the air canals in the rhizomes and roots that allow this bamboo to grow in more saturated conditions as compared to similar species. This species can also have abrupt kinks at the base of the culms. Maximum height can reach 35 ft with a diameter of 2 in. It is cold hardy to around -5 °F. It grows well in USDA zones 6b-10.
Arundinaria appalachiana, commonly known as hill cane, is a woody bamboo native to the Appalachian Mountains in the southeastern United States. The plant was elevated to the species level in 2006 based on new morphological and genetic information and was previously treated as a variety of Arundinaria tecta. The shortest member of its genus, hill cane ranges from 0.4–1.8 metres tall with a habit ranging from diffuse to pluri-caespitose. It is one of only three temperate species of bamboo native to North America. Hill cane is common on dry to mesic sites on upland slopes, bluffs and ridges in oak-hickory forests, which distinguishes it from other species in the genus: Arundinaria gigantea typically appears along perennial streams, while Arundinaria tecta is found in swamps and other very wet areas.
A stem is one of two main structural axes of a vascular plant, the other being the root. It supports leaves, flowers and fruits, transports water and dissolved substances between the roots and the shoots in the xylem and phloem, photosynthesis takes place here, stores nutrients, and produces new living tissue. The stem can also be called halm or haulm or culms.
Phyllostachys parvifolia is a running bamboo with thick culms that grow tall for a bamboo that endures cold weather.
Phyllostachys edulis, the mōsō bamboo, or tortoise-shell bamboo, or mao zhu, , is a temperate species of giant timber bamboo native to China and Taiwan and naturalised elsewhere, including Japan where it is widely distributed from south of Hokkaido to Kagoshima. The edulis part of the Latin name refers to its edible shoots. This bamboo can reach heights of up to 28 m (92 ft). This particular species of bamboo is the most common species used in the bamboo textile industry of China and other countries, for the production of rayon. Moso is less cold-hardy than many phyllostachys, surviving at a reduced height down to 5 degrees Fahrenheit (-15 °C).
Phyllostachys aurea is a species of bamboo, and is of the 'running bamboo' type, belonging to the diverse Bambuseae tribe. It is native to Fujian and Zhejiang in China. It is commonly known by the names fishpole bamboo, golden bamboo, monk's belly bamboo, and fairyland bamboo (Australia).
Bambusa bambos, the giant thorny bamboo, Indian thorny bamboo, spiny bamboo, or thorny bamboo is a species of clumping bamboo native to southern Asia. It is also naturalized in Seychelles, Central America, West Indies, Java, Malaysia, Maluku, and the Philippines.
Spigelia gentianoides is a rare species of flowering plant in the Loganiaceae known by the common names purpleflower pinkroot and gentian pinkroot. It is native to Alabama and Florida in the United States, where a few small populations remain. It is threatened by the loss and degradation of its habitat, and is a federally listed endangered species of the United States.
Arundinaria gigantea is a species of bamboo known as giant cane, river cane, and giant river cane. It is endemic to the south-central and southeastern United States as far west as Oklahoma and Texas and as far north as New York. Giant river cane was economically and culturally important to indigenous people, with uses including as a vegetable and materials for construction and craft production. Arundinaria gigantea and other species of Arundinaria once grew in large colonies called canebrakes covering thousands of acres in the southeastern United States, but today these canebrakes are considered endangered ecosystems.
Fargesia murielae, the umbrella bamboo, is a species of flowering plant in the family Poaceae. It is a large, clump-forming evergreen bamboo, closely resembling Fargesia nitida in the same genus, but with yellow canes.
Phyllostachys bambusoides, commonly called madake, giant timber bamboo, or Japanese timber bamboo, is a species of flowering plant in the bamboo subfamily of the grass family Poaceae, native to China, and possibly also to Japan.
Thamnocalamus tessellatus is a species of bamboo belonging to the family Poaceae, and native to the high mountains of South Africa, Lesotho and Eswatini, lying along the south-eastern part of South Africa. It is found in the Amatola Mountains, the Bamboesberg, which is named for it, and the Drakensberg. Its generic name means "bushy reed", while the specific name means "tiled", an allusion to the rectangular pattern of veins on the leaves. Its common names include mountain bamboo, and Bergbamboes and Wildebamboes in Afrikaans.
Thyrsostachys siamensis is one of two bamboo species belonging to the genus Thyrsostachys. It grows up to 7 to 13m tall. It is native to Yunnan, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam and naturalised in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Malaysia. The plant is also known as long-sheath bamboo, monastery bamboo, Thai bamboo, Thai umbrella bamboo, umbrella bamboo, and umbrella-handle bamboo.
A canebrake or canebreak is a thicket of any of a variety of Arundinaria grasses: A. gigantea, A. tecta and A. appalachiana. As a bamboo, these giant grasses grow in thickets up to 24 feet (7.3 m) tall. A. gigantea is generally found in stream valleys and ravines throughout the southeastern United States. A. tecta is a smaller stature species found on the Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plains. Finally, A. appalachiana is found in more upland areas at the southern end of the Appalachian Mountains. Cane does not do well on sites that meet wetland classification. Instead, canebrakes are characteristic of moist lowland, floodplain areas that are not as saturated as true wetlands.
Arundinaria tecta, or switchcane, is a bamboo species native to the Southeast United States, first studied in 1813. It serves as host to several butterfly species. The species typically occurs in palustrine wetlands, swamps, small to medium blackwater rivers, on deep peat in pocosins, and in small seepages with organic soils. The species is only known to occur in the Atlantic Plain, Gulf Coastal Plain, and Mississippi Embayment, though it was earlier thought to exist in the Piedmont and Southern Appalachians as well. Specimens from the uplands are now thought to be a separate but morphologically similar species, Arundinaria appalachiana.
Aulonemia haenkei is a species of Aulonemia bamboo.
Eleocharis confervoides is a species of plant in the sedge family (Cyperaceae). It is a perennial, submerged, aquatic and deeply rooted herb. It is known by its common name Algal bulrush and has lots of synonyms. The species has worldwide but very spotty distribution and is native in many tropical and subtropical regions in America, Asia and Africa. It inhabits in water, usually in shallow or deep lakes and ponds. The plant has slender stem with many branches, the leaves float in the water and flowers are usually emergent over the water surface. Fruiting occurs in fall. The most occurrences of plant appear in April and frequency of occurrences is increasing the last years
