Family: Poaceae

Chusquea coronalis (Mexican climbing bamboo, fountain bamboo)  is a bamboo native to Mexico and Central America. It is an ornamental bamboo sometimes grown in Japanese style gardens. Often used around water features or as a potted plant. This plant has a clumping growth pattern that makes it different from the running, invasive varieties of bamboo. This combined with the lack of reproductive maturity in this bamboo for several decades makes it a much safer choice to plant. This plant has not been documented as naturalized in any Hawaiian Islands to date.

High Risk Traits:

• Grows, and could potentially spread, in regions with tropical climates
  
• Shade tolerant
  
• Tolerates many soil types
  
• Reproduces by seeds (rarely)

Low Risk Traits:

• No reports of invasiveness or naturalization
  
• Unarmed (no spines, thorns, or burrs)
  
• Non-toxic
  
• A clumping bamboo that spreads vegetatively only locally
  
• Reaches maturity after several decades of growth (flowering rarely observed)
  
• Lack of flowering for much of life cycle limits potential for long distance dispersal