Skip to content
Dragon bamboo
Wie146, CC BY-SA 4.0, via iNaturalist

Grasses & bamboos

Dragon bamboo

Dendrocalamus asper (Schult.f.) Backer

Names

EnglishDragon bamboo
Dutch—
Spanish—
Chinese马来甜龙竹
Scientific nameDendrocalamus asper (Schult.f.) Backer

About this species

Dendrocalamus asper, also known as giant bamboo or dragon bamboo (in China), is a giant, tropical, clumping species of bamboo native to Southeast Asia. In addition to its prolific nature across Asia, the plant's overall attractive appearance (and ease of care) has seen this species introduced widely across South America and Africa (namely Kenya, Malawi and Ghana), as well as Mexico and Florida. One advantage of this bamboo, especially for gardens, is its natural growth habit as a sympodial, colony-forming plant. Overall this bamboo maintains its own "personal" growing space, and does not grow laterally (runners), thus posing less risk of being environmentally-invasive.

Although D. asper is widely considered to be non-invasive, that is only a generalized experience of most gardeners. Any species of plant can grow one way in its early stages of life, only to then grow very differently in another, especially if relocated. This could be seen as significant growth spurts, or gradually decreasing vigor of the plant.

Read more on Wikipedia · Text: Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Classification

KingdomPlantae
PhylumTracheophyta
ClassLiliopsida
OrderPoales
FamilyPoaceae
GenusDendrocalamus

Related species in Suriname