There are several species of edible bamboo shoot, including huge, round, hollow stalks with leaflike surfaces. Bamboo grows only in tropical climates, getting up to a staggering 100 feet tall.
Bamboo is classified as having sections known as culms and internodes, commonly known as nodes and internodes. The head portion (culm) is the main body, branches, leaves, and inflorescence. It is a hollow section of stalk between the nodes that often acts as an airtight surface known as the internodes, whereas it is a solid section-like area between your knuckles.
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Various forms of bamboo shoots are eaten as vegetables in Asian dishes. Bamboo shoots are (sheshan bamboo) processed into various forms to make them easily accessible as meals. Moreover, they are also available in fresh, dried, and canned forms. However, it appears that different cultures have different taste preferences when it comes to bamboo shoots.
List of Edible Bamboo Shoot Species
| Species | Origin | Attributes | Edibility |
|---|---|---|---|
| Acidosasa edulis | China | Yields up to 20,000 kg/hectare | Delicious |
| A. chinensis | Southern China with 1 species in Vietnam | Are edible and used for papermaking and weaving | Edible |
| Bambusa balcooa | Female bamboo native to Northeast India | Are edible and used as papermaking or wood chips. | Good |
| B. bambos | Southeast Asia | Indian thorny bamboo | Edible |
| B. beecheyana | Southern China to Indo-China and Taiwan | Large clump-forming bamboo | Good |
| B. blumeana | Indonesia and Malaysia | Thorny bamboo | Good |
| B. gibboides | Southeast Asia, China | Evergreen clumping bamboo | Good |
| B. polymorpha | Myanmar, Thailand, and Bangladesh | Sweet tasting edible shoots | Good |
| B. tulda | Indian subcontinent, Indo-china, Tibet, and Yunnan | Mostly used as paper pulp in India | Good |
| B. tuldoides | Asia, China, Vietnam, Laos, Malaysia, and Myanmar | Erect, evergreen, clump forming bamboos | Good |
| B. vulgaris | Indochina and Yunnan province of southern China | Open clump type bamboo specie | Edible |
| Chimonobambusa communis | China, Vietnam, Japan, Himalayas, and Myanmar | Running bamboo with swollen node | Good |
| C. macrophylla | – | – | Delicious |
| C. marmorea | – | – | Delicious |
| C. pachystachys | China South-Central | Leaf all year | Delicious |
| C. puberula | Assam, China, East Himalaya | Medium size spreading bamboo | Delicious |
| C. quadrangularis | – | Rounded square culms | Delicious |
| C. rigidula | China | Distinctive bulging nodes and shaped canes | Delicious |
| C. szechuanensis | E. Asia – W. China, Sichuan. | Mostly used for medicinal purposes | Delicious |
| C. tumidissinoda | – | Used for walking sticks in Sichuan | Delicious |
| C. utilis | – | – | Good |
| C. delicatus | China | – | Delicious |
| Dendrocalamus asper | Southeast Asia | – | Good |
| D. brandisii | – | Velvet Leaf Bamboo, Teddy Bear Bamboo, or Sweet Dragon Bamboo | Good |
| D. giganteus | Myanmar (Burma), Bhutan, China and Thailand | Giant Bamboo or Dragon Bamboo | Good |
| D. latiflorus | Southern China and Taiwan | Taiwan Giant Bamboo | Good |
| D. latiflorus | Southern China and | TaiwanTaiwan Giant Bamboo | Good |
| D. membranaceus | Southeast Asia | White Bamboo | Edible |
| D. strictus | Southeast Asia and India | Male Bamboo, Solid Bamboo or Calcutta Bamboo | Edible |
| Fargesia robusta | – | Clumping bamboo with shiny deep olive-green leaves | Edible |
| Gigantochloa atter | Malaysia | Giant Atter or Sweet Bamboo, | Good |
| G. levis | Borneo, China, Malaysia | Evergreen and sympodial bamboo | Delicious |
| G. ligulata | Malaya, Thailand | Perennial, evergreen | Good |
| G. nigrociliata | – | Black hair giant bamboo, tropical bamboo | Good |
| G. pruriens | North Sumatra, Indonesia | Perennial, evergreen, densely clump bamboo | Good |
| G. robusta | South and South-East Asia | Giant clumping bamboos | Good |
| G. thoii | Southern China, Southeast Asia | Giant clumping bamboo | Good |
| Guadua sarcocarpa | – | – | Good |
| Himalayacalamus falconeri | – | Gold canes with multiple green stripes | Good |
| Nastus elatus | – | Delicately arching foliage | Edible |
| Oxytenanthera abyssinica | Sub-Saharan Africa | Drought-resistant specie | Edible |
| Phyllostachys concava | China | – | Edible |
| P. incarnata | Southeast Asia | – | Delicious |
| P. sulphurea | – | Evergreen Bamboo | Good |
| P. angusta | – | Stone bamboo | Edible |
| P. arcana | China | Can grow up to 8 meters tall | Edible |
| P. atrovaginata | China, Burma and India | American Bamboo: Have wax on the surface | Edible |
| P. bambusoides | China and Japan | Giant or Japanese timber bamboo | Bitter |
| P. bambusoides f. shouzhu | – | – | Edible |
| P. bissetii | China | Dark gray-green canes | Edible |
| P. circumpilis | – | – | Edible |
| P. decora | China | Beautiful bamboo | Edible |
| P. dulcis | Massachusetts | Sweet-shoot bamboo: Display cream-colored stripes | Delicious |
| P. edulis | China and Taiwan | Moso bamboo, or tortoise-shell bamboo | Delicious |
| P. elegans | – | Culms are used as tools | Delicious |
| P. erecta | – | – | Edible |
| P. fimbriata | Mexico to northern Colombia | Green bamboo | Edible |
| P. fimbriligula | Hunan and Jiangsu of China | Upright growth habit | Delicious |
| P. flexuosa | – | Spring Beauty | Delicious |
| P. glabrata | China (Fujian, Zhejiang) | Woody culms | Delicious |
| P. glauca | Hunan Province of China | Remarkable evergreen bamboo | Good |
| P. glauca f. yunzhu | – | – | Edible |
| P. glauca var. variabilis | – | – | Edible |
| P. heteroclada | – | Water Bamboo | Edible |
| P. iridescens | Middle to eastern China and Japan | Fastest growing, and strongest bamboos | Delicious |
| P. makinoi | Southeast China | Upright timber bamboo | Edible |
| P. meyeri | Hunan, China | Evergreen bamboo | Edible |
| P. mirabilis | – | – | Edible |
| P. nidularia | Hunan Province of China | Tall and erect straight bamboo | Delicious |
| P. nidularia f. farcta | – | – | Edible |
| P. nidularia f. mirabilis | – | – | Edible |
| P. nidularia f. speciosa | – | – | Edible |
| P. nidularia f. sulfurea | – | – | Edible |
| P. nigella | Mediterranean | Culm-sheath blade triangular | Delicious |
| P. nigra f. henonis | Hunan Province of China | Black bamboo | Delicious |
| P. nuda | Zhejiang in east China | Geat screening bamboo | Delicious |
| P. nuda ‘Ink-finger’ | – | – | Delicious |
| P. parvffolia | Zhejiang Province of China | Bamboo with thick culms | Delicious |
| P. pingyangensis | – | Forest Organic Sliced Bamboo Shoots | Edible |
| P. platyglossa | Jiangsu, Zhejiang China | Thin walled bamboo | Delicious |
| P. praecox | – | Running timber bamboo with yellow clums | Delicious |
| P. praecox f. notata | – | – | Edible |
| P. praecox f. viridisulcata | – | Striped green sulcus | Delicious |
| P. prominens | China | Grow around 10 metres tall | Good |
| P. propinqua | – | Straight dark green culms | Good |
| P. propinqua f. lanuginosa | – | – | Delicious |
| P. purpurata | Asia | Super cold hardy bamboo | Edible |
| P. rivalis | Subtropical climate of southeast China | – | Delicious |
| P. robustiramea | Distinctive grooves above pair of unequal branches | Edible | |
| P. rubella | Hawaiian | – | Edible |
| P. rubromarginata | Central China (Guangxi and Guizhou) | Red Margin | Edible |
| P. rutila | – | – | Edible |
| P. sapida | Anhui, Gansu, Jiangsu | Herbarium specimens of bamboo | Edible |
| P. sulphurea f. laqueata | Anhui, Henan, Jiangxi provinces of China | Good | |
| P. tianmuensis | Anhui, Zhejiang (China) | Swollen culm-nodes | Edible |
| P. viridiglaucescens | East Asia | Green glaucous bamboo | Edible |
| P. vivax | China | Chinese timber bamboo | Delicious |
| P. vivax ‘Huangwenzhu’ | China | Yellow groove vivax and in Chinese called “Huang Wen Zhu”. | Edible |
| P. vivax f. aureocaulis | – | – | Edible |
| P. yunhoensis | Southeast China | – | Delicious |
| Pleioblastus hindsii | Japan and East Asia California | Hardiest bamboo | Edible |
| Sasa kurilensis | Kurile Islands in Japan | Northern-growing bamboo | Good |
| Sasaella masamuneana | Japan | Sam Bamboo | Edible |
| Thamnocalamus aristatus | Himalayas | Clumping Himalayan Bamboo | Edible |
| Thyrsostachys siamensis | China, Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, and Thailand | Monastery Bamboo, Thai Bamboo or Umbrella Bamboo | Good |
| Yushania maling | Nepal to Assam | Arundinaria maling – graceful open clumper | Good |
Useful Article: Edible Bamboo Shoots: Grow Your Own To Add Flavor To Diet
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Excellent article.
I am a Japanese descendent and bamboo has been part of several dishes that my mom used to prepare.