You can’t live in Japan and not notice bamboo and bamboo grasses growing all over Japan. Tall bamboo may look more like a tree than a grass, but it is still within the bamboo grass family.
It is bamboo season. The shoots are popping up all over. These grow really fast – the fastest growing plant in the world. If you come back a week later. They would be taller than your roof. Another interesting thing, they start out as really fat shoots, and become thinner and thinner as they grow taller and taller. The leaves only start coming out after all the brown fibrous outing sheath is gone.
Posted May 21, 2006
NATURE IN JAPAN 