Height: 1.5 metres

This wonderfully architectural bamboo, a native of Japan and parts of Russia, is an extremely enthusiastic coloniser. It is ideally suited to a large garden, but may be used in a smaller space if contained by a rhizome barrier or wall. The hugeness of the leaves (up to 35 centimetres long and 9 centimetres wide) is emphasised by the relatively petite and the slim canes. It grows best in a moist position, in sun or shade. It makes a strikingly exotic understorey in a woodland, or on an island where it provides luxuriant shelter for water fowl.