Height: 3 metres or more

This medium-height, fine-leaved bamboo is a native of cool, temperate zones in India and Nepal, and was introduced to Europe in 1865. Our stock plants came from the water garden at Annes Grove in Co Cork, where we discovered them growing beside the River Awbeg. The upright canes are smooth, round and slender, and are the same colour as the deep, rich green leaves, which hang in voluminous cascades on mature plants. A fast-grower which enjoys moist and semi-shade conditions, this bamboo may be used as a hedge, a screen or as a soothing green backdrop to a garden. Yushania anceps has an unusual way of spreading: the rhizomes produce long, thin extensions, known as "necks", which travel some distance from the parent plant before putting out roots and sending up a new shoot. Sometimes they rear themselves out of the soil in weird animal-like tentacles, which gives this plant a definite curiosity factor. This bamboo is easily controlled by a rhizome barrier or by a shallow trench. Unwanted, snaky necks can be severed with a secateurs or pruning saw.