Bamboo structure study (morphology) give us knowledge to better and consciously bamboo planting. According to the book "Bamboos", of Christine Recht and Max F. Wetterwald (Timber Press - Portland, Oregon), bamboo is an evergreen plant that develops new leaves at spring. Reproduction through seeds generally takes a long time, and we use to reproduce bamboo by vegetative reproduction.

Bamboo is a very resistant plant, it may generally recover from a bad season or year. After Hiroshima's destruction by atomic weapon bamboos resisted, and were the first plants to appear in the arid post war landscape.

Quoting Recht e Wetterwald:
"The main structural parts of a bamboo plant are the underground system of rhizomes, the aerial culms and the culm branches. All of these parts are formed according to the same principle; an alternating series of nodes and internodes. As a bamboo grows, each internode is wrapped in a protective sheath, attached to the preceding node at the sheath ring. Once the internode has lengthened, it does not grow any further. The nodes are massive pieces of tissue, comprising the node ring, the sheath ring and usually a dormant bud. These dormant buds are the site of emergence of new segmented growth.
rhizomes - Rhizomes are underground stems which grow and branch away from the bamboo plant, enabling new territory to be colonized. Each year, culms arise from the rhizomes to form the aerial parts of the bamboo [Rhizomes of 3 or more years don't sprout anymore]. These rhizomes are often so tightly packed that the soil under a bamboo plant seems to be filled with them. They form a 'turf' similar to ordinary grasses, which can vary in depth, depending on the species and growing conditions, altough seldom deeper than one meter."

Rhizomes reproduce from other rhizomes and stay conected to its neighbors. In this interconection, all individuals from a same group are descending (clones) from the primal rhizome, and are, at a certain point, interdependent and solidary. The shoots use the group last year reserves to sprout and grow. Bamboos at the center are older, at the margins we find the newer ones . When looking for age identification, specifically a mature pole, watch the occurrence of stains and dirt, also its toughness. Younger bamboos are brilliant, and may still be wrapped by the culm sheaths , they are flexible and wet inside. Old bamboos are rotten or dry.

Rhizome tips are the site of their growth, and they are tightly wrapped by sheaths, that are rapidly substituted by new ones to give space to the new internode, and so on. The true roots of a bamboo plant grow from the rhizomes rings, they are thinner than rhizomes and captivate soil's water and nourishment.

Tydyn Rain St. Clair, quoting McClure, divides bamboos with basically six different types of rhizomes, the first two of them being the most common:

pachymorph (clumper / cespiteux)
are the rhizome with bulb form, having short and compact internodes . The tip is often oriented upwards, where bamboo culm arises from, thinner than the bulb. The buds found on the rhizome rings are the site for new rhizome development. Each year a rhizome can produce only one new rhizome. This type of bamboo grows in clumpers or "turfs", where one cannot pass normally walking. They grow radially, moving just a little from each other. They can have short, medium or long necks.

They are often found among tropical species, as the ones in Bambusa and Guadua genus. They are non-invasive bamboo.