Hello!

Is this bamboo and if it is what species is it? I found it growing out of nowhere in my backyard.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...7/94eef98c.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...7/f39fcbee.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...7/1384094a.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...7/7f99282d.jpg

No
I was going to stop there but it won't let me have a 2-letter answer.

I thought it looked like some sort of reed.

chinchek787 wrote:
Hello!

Is this bamboo and if it is what species is it? I found it growing out
of nowhere in my backyard.

[image: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2.../94eef98c.jpg]
[image: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2.../f39fcbee.jpg]
[image: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2.../1384094a.jpg]
[image: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2.../7f99282d.jpg]


--

Not Bamboo.

chinchek787 wrote:
Is this bamboo and if it is what species is it? I found it growing out
of nowhere in my backyard.

It is in the same family, but is not bamboo... This is a grass of some
type. I was about to call it a "common" grass, because it looks a lot
like the native grasses we have around here. But perhaps it is not
common where you live.

Cheers!

I live in Phoenix, AZ. We don't have much of anything that is "green"

My neighbor has some in his backyard so I guess that is where it came from. Here is a picture of what I looks like when it's planted (the guy in this picture thinks its bamboo to )

http://arnica.csustan.edu/mtbike/Mar...ges/bamboo.jpg

"chinchek787" wrote in
message
My neighbor has some in his backyard so I guess that is where
it
came from. Here is a picture of what I looks like when it's
planted (the guy in this picture thinks its bamboo to )

[image:
http://arnica.csustan.edu/mtbike/Mar...es/bamboo.jpg]

Doesn't look like bamboo to me.

--

Travis in Shoreline (just North of Seattle) Washington
USDA Zone 8
Sunset Zone 5

In article ,
chinchek787 wrote:

My neighbor has some in his backyard so I guess that is where it came
from. Here is a picture of what I looks like when it's planted (the
guy in this picture thinks its bamboo to )

[image: http://arnica.csustan.edu/mtbike/Mar...es/bamboo.jpg]

Definitely not bamboo. It looks like caña brava, or wild cane. Its an
invasive, non-native plant in Arizona. The canes have little structural
strength.

rus

On 15 Jun 2006 08:50:42 -0700, "HumanJHawkins"
wrote:

chinchek787 wrote:
Is this bamboo and if it is what species is it? I found it growing out
of nowhere in my backyard.

It is in the same family, but is not bamboo... This is a grass of some
type. I was about to call it a "common" grass, because it looks a lot
like the native grasses we have around here. But perhaps it is not
common where you live.

Cheers!


From the looks of the adult plant, you probably have Arundo donax,
Giant Reed.

Bob

Robert Chehey wrote:
On 15 Jun 2006 08:50:42 -0700, "HumanJHawkins"
wrote:

chinchek787 wrote:
Is this bamboo and if it is what species is it? I found it growing out
of nowhere in my backyard.

It is in the same family, but is not bamboo... This is a grass of some
type. I was about to call it a "common" grass, because it looks a lot
like the native grasses we have around here. But perhaps it is not
common where you live.
CUT

From the looks of the adult plant, you probably have Arundo donax,
Giant Reed.

Bob

I was way off on my first post... Glad to see someone nailed it.
Incidentally, one agricultural site I went to indicated that Arundo
donax is in fact a type of bamboo... I am inclined to believe that the
site is wrong, but since I don't know all of the rules about what makes
one grass a bamboo, while another grass isn't, thought I would mention
it... Arundo donax, at the very least is in the same family with
bamboo. Thoughts?

The "I know it when I see it" features of bamboo are the persistent woody culms with side-branches (potentially) at each node.

The family Poaceae are the (true) grasses. This family is divided into 7 sub-families. One of those sub-families is the Bambusoideae, which is divided into two groups, group Bambusodae, and a group of other grasses called Oryzodae, which is divided into five tribes and includes some of the so-called wild rices. Bambusodae is divided into three tribes: Bambuseae, the woody bamboos, comprising 9 sub-tribes, and two other small tribes. This complicated taxonomy tends to suggest that bamboo as popularly understood may turn out not to be a valid taxonomical category in the sense of evolutionary biology, like whales and dolphins, or birds and reptiles, or mushrooms and toadstools, or butterflies and moths.

By saying "Arundo is in the same family with bamboo" you are saying is "Arundo is a true grass", which is correct, but no more than that. The grasses in my lawn are also in the same family with bamboo.

There are grass-like plants which are not Poaceae, but in the wider plant Order Poales. Poales includes some things which might colloquially be called grass, such as sedges (Cyperaceae), rushes (Juncaceae) and restios, but also a few things less likely to be mistaken for grass, most significantly the bromeliads and pipeworts. Perhaps this was the distinction you had in mind, ie, distinguishing Arundo from rushes and sedges. "Reed" is not a biological category, it is just a name applied to certain plants.