All bamboo species belong to the graminacaea family, nowadays called poaceae. So far approximately 80 genera and over 1,300 species have been listed, but it is highly likely that many other species remain to be discovered and described.
Bamboo plants have two main parts : the rhizome (underground) and the culm (the aerial stem).

The rhizome is a form of “underground stem” from which the roots and the aerial part grow.
Two main types of rhizomes exist :
- running or creeping rhizomes which cover a larger area of soil
- and cespitose rhizomes which grow less and thus cover a smaller area of soil.

The rhizomes stock the reserves needed for the spectacular growth of the spears otherwise known as “bamboo shoots”. While growing, these very tender shoots are protected by overlapping scales called sheaths. Once bamboo shoots have finished their development, they become culms.

Culm is the word used for the main stem in graminaceae. Bamboo culm also goes by the name of “cane”. Note, however, that sugar cane is not a bamboo. In most species, the culm is a hollow stem with partitions.
Exceptions do exist, though : some culms are solid.
Culms develop very rapidly : once they have appeared outside the rhizome, they reach maturity in a few weeks. They grow no more after that. Branches develop on the culm at each knot. The flowers are grouped in inflorescence. Sometimes bamboo flowers are relatively rare.

Luckily, bamboo flowering is not limited to what is written in most articles which touch on the subject, i.e., that when one bamboo flowers, all individual members of the same species in the whole world flower and then die. This case is rare.
The fact that one bamboo is seen to be flowering does not mean that all fellow bamboo plants of that ilk are going to flower before giving up the ghost. It might be a sign announcing gregarious flowering, which always begins in that way (flowering of all the bamboo plants in the sale line), but statistically there is a much greater likelihood of its being simply sporadic flowering (affecting only a few individual plants).
The case also exists of Phyllostachys elegans : practically all the members of the same line flower every year without the plant’s seeming to suffer in the least.

Do not confuse the following with bamboo : Provence cane (Arundo donax)
- Pogonatherum paniceum, often confused with and sold as bamboo ;
- Dracaena, known as Chinese cane, very fashionable at present
Due to some resemblance in the leaves or elsewhere, the common or garden names of some plants contain the word “bamboo” : sacred bamboo (Nandina) ; bamboo orchid (Dendrobium) ; bamboo begonia (Begonia albo-picta – greenish white flowers) ; bamboo iris (Iris confusa) ; bamboo ficus (Ficus microcarpa) ; bamboo-leaf oak (Quercus myrsinfolia).