Many of these clumping bamboos are the fastest growing plants in the world, easily outstripping palms to create a truly exotic tropical feeling in your landscape or suburban garden, and you don’t have to worry as they won’t invade your neighbour’s yard.

Within two years you can generate elegant privacy hedges or tall vertical statements that also provide you with edible shoots and, later on, timber for fences, furniture or a new tool shed or pagoda!

There are hundreds of species of clumping bamboo and even more cultivars within the species. On the unusual occasion of a bamboo flowering even more plant variations can occur. Bamboo identification can be complex and a changing entity. The bamboo identification landscape is likely to change a lot more in the future as genetic mapping becomes more viable.

Most clumping bamboo’s are from non-english south east asian countries (eg. China, Indonesia etc.) and are relatively new to Australia, having mostly been imported in the last 20 years. As such, identifying them with common garden names is messy.

Many species did not have english common names, therefore being named by the grower. Common names were also derived from local language, possibly even regional dialects. Multiple common names frequently occur for the same plant. The same common name can sometimes be used for different plants.