Family: Poaceae
Bambusa textilis, commonly known as weaver’s bamboo, is a tall and elegant clumping bamboo prized for its straight, slender culms and graceful growth habit. Native to southern China and Vietnam, it’s traditionally used for weaving and crafts thanks to its strong, flexible stems. In Hawaiʻi landscapes, this species is often planted as a living screen, windbreak, or ornamental feature due to its dense foliage and ability to form tidy clumps rather than spreading aggressively like running bamboos.
While weaver’s bamboo is generally considered a well-behaved clumping species, it still requires thoughtful placement and regular maintenance. Its clumps can become quite large with time, and the tall culms may exceed 40 feet in ideal conditions. Gardeners should be sure they have enough space and commit to trimming and thinning as needed. As with all introduced plants, selecting non-invasive species and managing them responsibly helps protect Hawaiʻi’s ecosystems.
High Risk Traits:
- Suited to tropical/subtropical climates.
- Repeatedly introduced outside its native range.
- Has sharp spines.
- Tolerates a wide range of soil conditions.
- Can hybridize with other bamboo species.
- Intentionally propagated and dispersed by humans.
- Seeds are wind-dispersed (when produced).
Low Risk Traits:
- Limited cold hardiness (not broadly climate versatile).
- No evidence of naturalization or weediness.
- Palatable to grazing animals.
- Not shade-tolerant.
- Non-invasive, clumping growth habit (does not form runners or dense thickets).
- Rare and sporadic seed production.
- Cannot reproduce by vegetative fragmentation.
- Long time to maturity (>4 years to first flowering).
- Propagules lack mechanisms for unintentional dispersal.
- Seeds do not form a persistent seed bank.
