Broad-leaved bamboo is a running bamboo from Japan with unusually big leaves, up to about a foot long. Gardeners plant it as a bold, shade-tolerant groundcover, but its creeping spread fast, and it has escaped from gardens in Britain, other parts of Europe, and a few places in the US.
Appearance
- Appearance
- Canes are about 1/4–1/2 in (7–10 mm) thick, branching sparsely near the base.
- Growth form
- A running bamboo with long underground rhizomes; canes usually 5–7 ft (1.5–2 m) tall, sometimes up to about 10 ft (3 m).
- Leaves
- Leaves are oblong, about 7–12 in (18–30 cm) long and 2–3 in (5–8 cm) wide, bright green above and grayish-green beneath, hairless on both sides.
- Flowers
- It rarely flowers and seldom sets seed; in Europe it was first seen flowering in the 1960s.
Look-alikes
Veitch's bamboo (kuma bamboo grass)Sasa veitchii
Kuma bamboo grass has narrower leaves, about 1 1/2–2 in (4–5 cm) wide, and in winter their edges dry out to a papery white border. Broad-leaved bamboo leaves are wider, 2–3 in (5–8 cm).
Why they get mixed upBoth are Japanese Sasa bamboos with big leaves grown as shady groundcovers.
Where it lives
- Typical habitats
- Mountain forest understory
- Damp woodlands
- Shady stream banks
- Range
- Native to Japan, Sakhalin, and the Kuril Islands. In the US it has escaped from gardens in western Washington (west of the Cascades) and in Tennessee. It has also gone wild in parts of Europe and in New Zealand.
- Preferred conditions
- In Japan it carpets forest floors in snowy mountain regions. Where it has escaped, it turns up in damp woods, shaded stream banks, and disturbed lowland sites.
Growing it
- Care
- Grows well in thin woodland shade. Cutting it to the ground every few years keeps it looking fresh, but it is a poor neighbor for other shrubs: new shoots can pop up 3–6 ft (1–2 m) from the parent clump.
- Propagation
- Spreads almost entirely by rhizomes. Pieces dumped with garden waste or washed down rivers can start new patches.
Conservation
- IUCN Red List
- NENot EvaluatedNot yet assessed
- Status
- In Europe it is on a watch list of potentially invasive plants because escaped stands form dense thickets that crowd out native plants and stop them from regenerating.
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