Bambusa bambos (L.) Voss

A densely tufted bamboo. The culm or stem is 30 m tall. It is 1`5-18 cm across. The wall is very thick. The internodes are 20-40 cm long. The stem is bright green. The nodes are slightly swollen. The lower nodes can have aerial roots. There are branches from the nodes. The lower branches have spines which curve backwards. The sheath of the stem is 15-35 cm long by 18-30 cm wide. It is wrinkled at the top. It is brown and hairy when young. It falls off as the branches develop. The leaf blade is sword shaped and 6-22 cm long by 1-3 cm wide. The flowering stalk is at the end of the leafy branches. After the bunch flowers, seeds are set and the clump dies.

Found most abundantly in mixed moist deciduous forest, and not so commonly in mixed dry deciduous forest and in semi-evergreen forest, growing best along river valleys and in other moist conditions, on hills at elevations up to 1,000 metres.

The shoots should be cooked to remove the bitter cyanide. The water should be changed. They are often pickled then eaten. The seeds are used for flour.

It can easily be grown from seed. It can be grown by cuttings of the rhizome or the stem. Fresh seed germinate in 5-10 days. Seeds can be stored for 6 months at cool temperatures and in dry condition. Seedlings are normally kept in a nursery for 2 years before planting out. When stem cuttings are used stems with 1-3 nodes are planted horizontally. They are treated with root promoting hormones. A spacing of 6 m is suitable.