Indian thorny bamboo

Bambusa bambos, the giant thorny bamboo, is a large, densely tufted, clump-forming woody bamboo in the grass family, native to South and Southeast Asia. It produces stout, erect culms that can reach great heights, arising in close clumps from a sympodial rootstock; the culms are hollow between solid, swollen nodes and are characteristically armed at the lower nodes with curved, spreading thorny branchlets that make the thickets nearly impenetrable. The culm sheaths are large and stiff, falling early, while the bright green leaf blades are lanceolate and arranged on the upper branches, arising from sheaths clasping the slender twigs. Like most bamboos, the spikelets are grouped into clusters along the branches and flowering is gregarious and infrequent, often occurring at long intervals across whole populations before the plants die back. A notable product of this and related bamboos is tabasheer, a hard, siliceous concretion that forms in the hollow internodes and is valued in traditional medicine.