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Bamboo

Phyllostachys spp. (accepted: Phyllostachys) · Poaceae · all Phyllostachys records

Your local evidence lens

Separate evidence questions, never one approval badge

Set a ZIP to compare this record with state distribution, native range, USDA hardiness, and invasive records.

A genus split is not a placement verdict. Set a ZIP to read the local documented split.

1. Fire evidence and conditions

Fire evidence: Highly flammable — location does not change the cited classification.
Fire-performance conditions: No test or rating condition is normalized.
Fire ecology context: No section-reviewed fire-ecology context is normalized.
Placement evidence: 2 source placement records; source schemes remain separate.
Evidence regions: Global; New South Wales, Australia; eastern US
Maintenance: No sourced horticultural maintenance assertion is normalized; fire-test conditions do not supply maintenance advice.

2. Why this plant is relevant here

State distribution: Documented in DC, DE, MD, NJ, OH, PA, WV.
Native range: No current cited or legacy state native range is normalized.
Introduced / established: No introduced or established row is normalized; that does not prove native status.
USDA hardiness: Only uncertain or inapplicable hardiness rows are cited; no primary zone is projected.

3. Legal, ecological, and broader status

Legal-list status: Set a location for an exact legal-list result; source silence is not clearance.
Seed-list status: Set a location to compare the separate state noxious-weed seed layer.
Reported invasive here: No ecological invasive report is normalized; that does not prove noninvasiveness.
Broader regional context: Aggregate AK, HI, and L48 evidence is shown only as regional context, never as an exact-state finding.
Federal context: Federal designations remain separate from state legal-list results.

How to read this page

The status above is computed from the cited rows below: independent recommendations can support a fire-resistant result, an avoid row can produce keep-away, and disagreement stays visible as conflict. Placement notes preserve each source’s own scheme rather than translating unlike rules into one scale. This is evidence about a plant, not permission to plant it in every part of the defensible space; Zone 0 remains noncombustible.

Bamboo (Phyllostachys spp.) — Photo: (c) the swamp ass, some rights reserved (CC BY) (CC BY), via iNaturalist. Species-typical, not necessarily this cultivar.

Form: grass
USDA hardiness: Only uncertain or inapplicable source rows; no primary zone projected
Mature height: ~15 ft
Light: Full sun
Grows in: DC, DE, MD, NJ, OH, PA, WV
Rated in: Global; New South Wales, Australia; eastern US
Family: Poaceae
Evidence: 15 cited sources

Plant hardiness evidence

These values describe the plant source. Your ZIP zone comes from the separate 2023 USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map. Whole-zone values stay whole-zone, and a single unresolved value is not treated as a tolerance range. Different source boundaries stay separate: overlapping statements are compared independently, while only ranges with no shared zone are called a conflict.

Eastern United States Fire Performance Plant Selector · record phyllostachys-spp · 2016-wayback · as of 2026-08-26

Source prints 5 · single-value meaning unresolved · whole zone precision · source stated

Source taxon: Phyllostachys spp. · exact match.

Source location: Cold Hardiness Zone field in the recovered selector record.

Not used for comparison: The recovered selector prints one Cold Hardiness Zone value but does not define it as a minimum threshold or a one-zone range.

Where its sources say to plant it

Placement rules below use each source's own distances or named zones, tied to its rating. They are not interchangeable with the directory's current Zone 0 guidance.

Eastern United States Fire Performance Plant Selector: Landscape Zone 4 — beyond 30 ft; outside the selector's recommendation area [Fire Performance Plant Selector landscape zone] (with its avoid rating)
Planning for Bush Fire Protection 2019: Appendix A1.9 — Exotic vegetation [nswrfs-pbp-a1.9] (with its avoid rating)

The evidence

Grouped by what each source concluded. Primary evidence rated the plant itself (a lab, field program, or original curation); corroboration compiled or republished another source's rating and resolves to its root lineage.

Avoids (2)

Eastern United States Fire Performance Plant Selector — USDA Forest Service Northeastern Area S&PF + state Firewise programs (WV, OH, PA, DE, DC, MD, NJ) · 2016-wayback · original source Primary evidence Keyed curation lineage: ufifas-srs-tree

“NOT Firewise (4)”

Some species are very invasive and provide ample fire load material as the plant develops into impenetrable thickets.
Planning for Bush Fire Protection 2019 — Appendix A1.9 exotic vegetation — NSW Rural Fire Service · 2019 · original source Corroboration Regulation lineage: unknown

“Under adverse fire weather conditions these plants can contribute to the intensity of bush fires.”

Appendix A1.9 identifies Phyllostachys spp within its main exotic vegetation groups, reports intense surface-fire behaviour for these groups, and assigns them regulatory vegetation fuel-class conversions.

Listed without a rating (13)

FLAMITS: FLAMmability plant traiTS database — Dryad / Global Ecology and Biogeography · Dryad version 9 · original source Corroboration Trait database lineage: meta-aggregator

13 cited rows from this source; its identity, lineage and tier are stated once.
- “time to flaming (s): 56” · score 56 (FLAMITS — time to flaming (s))
  
  FLAMITS record 3607; Ignitability measurement; plant part litter; fuel all; predrying yes; device burning bench; site Ganteaume2012-1; sampling summer. Primary study Ganteaume2012: Ganteaume, A., Jappiot, M., & Lampin, C. (2012). Assessing the flammability of surface fuels beneath ornamental vegetation in wildlandurban interfaces in Provence (south-eastern France). International Journal of Wildland Fire, 22, 333.
- “flaming duration (s): 66” · score 66 (FLAMITS — flaming duration (s))
  
  FLAMITS record 3614; Sustainability measurement; plant part litter; fuel all; predrying yes; device burning bench; site Ganteaume2012-1; sampling summer. Primary study Ganteaume2012: Ganteaume, A., Jappiot, M., & Lampin, C. (2012). Assessing the flammability of surface fuels beneath ornamental vegetation in wildlandurban interfaces in Provence (south-eastern France). International Journal of Wildland Fire, 22, 333.
- “ignition frequency (%): 34” · score 34 (FLAMITS — ignition frequency (%))
  
  FLAMITS record 3621; Ignitability measurement; plant part litter; fuel all; predrying yes; device burning bench; site Ganteaume2012-1; sampling summer. Primary study Ganteaume2012: Ganteaume, A., Jappiot, M., & Lampin, C. (2012). Assessing the flammability of surface fuels beneath ornamental vegetation in wildlandurban interfaces in Provence (south-eastern France). International Journal of Wildland Fire, 22, 333.
- “time to flaming (s): 10.71” · score 10.71 (FLAMITS — time to flaming (s))
  
  FLAMITS record 3632; Ignitability measurement; plant part leaves; fuel live; predrying no; device epiradiator; site Ganteaume2013-1; sampling summer. Primary study Ganteaume2013: Ganteaume, A., Jappiot, M., Lampin, C., Guijarro, M., & Hernando, C. (2013). Flammability of some ornamental species in wildland-urban interfaces in southeastern France: laboratory assessment at particle level. Environmental Management, 52, 467-80.
- “flaming duration (s): 8.75” · score 8.75 (FLAMITS — flaming duration (s))
  
  FLAMITS record 3640; Sustainability measurement; plant part leaves; fuel live; predrying no; device epiradiator; site Ganteaume2013-1; sampling summer. Primary study Ganteaume2013: Ganteaume, A., Jappiot, M., Lampin, C., Guijarro, M., & Hernando, C. (2013). Flammability of some ornamental species in wildland-urban interfaces in southeastern France: laboratory assessment at particle level. Environmental Management, 52, 467-80.
- “ignition frequency (%): 48” · score 48 (FLAMITS — ignition frequency (%))
  
  FLAMITS record 3648; Ignitability measurement; plant part leaves; fuel live; predrying no; device epiradiator; site Ganteaume2013-1; sampling summer. Primary study Ganteaume2013: Ganteaume, A., Jappiot, M., Lampin, C., Guijarro, M., & Hernando, C. (2013). Flammability of some ornamental species in wildland-urban interfaces in southeastern France: laboratory assessment at particle level. Environmental Management, 52, 467-80.
- “time to flaming (s): 56.24” · score 56.24 (FLAMITS — time to flaming (s))
  
  FLAMITS record 3661; Ignitability measurement; plant part leaves; fuel all; predrying yes; device epiradiator; site Ganteaume2018-1; sampling summer. Primary study Ganteaume2018: Ganteaume, A. (2018). Does plant flammability differ between leaf and litter bed scale? Role of fuel characteristics and consequences for flammability assessment. International Journal of Wildland Fire, 27, 342-352.
- “flaming duration (s): 66.09” · score 66.09 (FLAMITS — flaming duration (s))
  
  FLAMITS record 3676; Sustainability measurement; plant part leaves; fuel all; predrying yes; device epiradiator; site Ganteaume2018-1; sampling summer. Primary study Ganteaume2018: Ganteaume, A. (2018). Does plant flammability differ between leaf and litter bed scale? Role of fuel characteristics and consequences for flammability assessment. International Journal of Wildland Fire, 27, 342-352.
- “ignition frequency (%): 34” · score 34 (FLAMITS — ignition frequency (%))
  
  FLAMITS record 3691; Ignitability measurement; plant part leaves; fuel all; predrying yes; device epiradiator; site Ganteaume2018-1; sampling summer. Primary study Ganteaume2018: Ganteaume, A. (2018). Does plant flammability differ between leaf and litter bed scale? Role of fuel characteristics and consequences for flammability assessment. International Journal of Wildland Fire, 27, 342-352.
- “flame propagation: 3.43” · score 3.43 (FLAMITS — flame propagation)
  
  FLAMITS record 3706; Combustibility measurement; plant part leaves; fuel all; predrying yes; device epiradiator; site Ganteaume2018-1; sampling summer. Primary study Ganteaume2018: Ganteaume, A. (2018). Does plant flammability differ between leaf and litter bed scale? Role of fuel characteristics and consequences for flammability assessment. International Journal of Wildland Fire, 27, 342-352.
- “time to flaming (s): 10.71” · score 10.71 (FLAMITS — time to flaming (s))
  
  FLAMITS record 3721; Ignitability measurement; plant part leaves; fuel live; predrying no; device epiradiator; site Ganteaume2018-1; sampling summer. Primary study Ganteaume2018: Ganteaume, A. (2018). Does plant flammability differ between leaf and litter bed scale? Role of fuel characteristics and consequences for flammability assessment. International Journal of Wildland Fire, 27, 342-352.
- “flaming duration (s): 8.75” · score 8.75 (FLAMITS — flaming duration (s))
  
  FLAMITS record 3736; Sustainability measurement; plant part leaves; fuel live; predrying no; device epiradiator; site Ganteaume2018-1; sampling summer. Primary study Ganteaume2018: Ganteaume, A. (2018). Does plant flammability differ between leaf and litter bed scale? Role of fuel characteristics and consequences for flammability assessment. International Journal of Wildland Fire, 27, 342-352.
- “ignition frequency (%): 48” · score 48 (FLAMITS — ignition frequency (%))
  
  FLAMITS record 3751; Ignitability measurement; plant part leaves; fuel live; predrying no; device epiradiator; site Ganteaume2018-1; sampling summer. Primary study Ganteaume2018: Ganteaume, A. (2018). Does plant flammability differ between leaf and litter bed scale? Role of fuel characteristics and consequences for flammability assessment. International Journal of Wildland Fire, 27, 342-352.

Fire-resistant grasss instead

Fescue, Tall
Festuca arundinacea

Whitegrass
Leersia virginica

Tall fescue
Lolium arundinaceum

Bottlebrush sedge
Carex comosa

Fox sedge
Carex vulpinoidea

Woolgrass bulrush
Scirpus cyperinus

Fire-resistant grasss listed above

Last verified 2026-08-23. JSON (CC BY 4.0)

Profiles: USDA PLANTS · GBIF · iNaturalist · Wikidata · ITIS

Phyllostachys spp. (Bamboo). FireApproved. https://fireapproved.com/plants/phyllostachys-spp/. Last verified 2026-08-23.