Canebrake bamboo (Arundinaria gigantea)

Family: Poaceae or Gramineae | Edibility: Edible (3/5)

Canebrake bamboo - Young shoots are edible and cooked. They are used as a pot-herb. The seed is also cooked and used as a wheat substitute. The extensive growth of the plant provides streambank stabilization, sediment retention, and bioaccumulation of nutrients and toxins.So long as it can be restrained, the plant makes an excellent, dense hedge or screen.

Edible Parts & Harvest Seasons

Edible Parts: Nuts/Seeds, Shoots

Harvest Seasons: Early Summer, Fall, Late Summer, Spring

Flavor & Culinary Uses

Young shoots - cooked. Used as a pot-herb. Seed - cooked. It can be used as a wheat substitute, for which it is not much inferior, but it is rather small and difficult to collect in quantity. — Young shoots - cooked.; Used as a pot-herb.; It can be used as a wheat substitute, for which it is not much inferior, but it is rather small and difficult to collect in quantity.; The plants only flower at irregular intervals of several years.

Habitat & North American Range

Forms dense thickets along riverbanks, in swamps and low woods. Found on all types of soil from sea level to 600 metres. (Zone 5, Zone 6, Zone 7, Zone 8, Zone 9)