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 schombergkii 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 tulda, or Indian timber bamboo, is considered to be one of the most useful of bamboo species. It is native to the Indian subcontinent, Indochina, Tibet, and Yunnan, and naturalized in Iraq, Puerto Rico, and parts of South America.
Dendrocalamus strictus is a bamboo species belonging to the Dendrocalamus genus. The culms (stems) are often solid. Common names include male bamboo, solid bamboo, and Calcutta bamboo.
Bromus kalmii, Kalm's brome, is a species of brome grass. It is a native bunchgrass in the North-central and Northeastern United States, the Great Lakes region, and eastern Canada. The specific epithet kalmii refers to its discoverer Pehr Kalm.
Hopia obtusa is a species of grass commonly known as vine mesquite. This plant was treated as Panicum obtusum until recently when more molecular and genetic material revealed new information about it. Hopia obtusa is now placed in the monotypic genus Hopia.
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.
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.
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.
Dendrocalamus hamiltonii, or Hamilton's bamboo, is a species of bamboo, 12–15 cm in diameter and growing up to 15–18 m in height, found in South Asian countries such as, India, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Nepal, Pakistan, and far eastern China.
Dendrocalamus giganteus, commonly known as giant bamboo, is a giant tropical and subtropical, dense-clumping species native to Southeast Asia. It is one of the largest bamboo species in the world.
Ochlandra stridula, the Ceylon reed-bamboo, reed bamboo or forest bamboo, is a species of bamboo in the grass family). It is endemic to Sri Lanka. It can be found extensively in Ratnapura and Kegalle districts, in waste lands of rainforest and also along stream banks and in forest gaps.
Neololeba atra, the black bamboo, is a species of tropical Asian, Australian, and Papuasian bamboos in the grass family Poaceae.
Bambusa polymorpha, or Burmese bamboo, is a species of clumping bamboo native to Bangladesh, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Java, Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Ecuador.
Dendrocalamus longispathus, the long-sheath bamboo, is a bamboo species which grows up to 20 m tall. It is native to Bangladesh, Myanmar, and Thailand. It has now become an exotic species all over the South Asia.
Gigantochloa atter, the black bamboo, sweet bamboo, or giant atter, is a bamboo species belonging to the genus Gigantochloa. It grows up to 20 m tall. It is native to Island Southeast Asia, but has become naturalized all over the South Asia.
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.
Bromus nottowayanus, the Nottoway Valley brome or satin brome, is a brome grass native to North America. The specific epithet nottowayanus refers to the Nottoway Valley. The grass has a diploid number of 14.
