Drakensberg Bamboo

Often found in association with Leucosidea sericea, this frost-resistant species grows in dense clumps up to 5 metres tall, preferring moist rocky places, and has hollow culms or canes of 2-2.5 cm in diameter. The leaves at the base of branches are reduced to papery sheaths, while other leaves are 4–12 cm long and sharply pointed with spiny margins and a strongly tessellated surface.

Bergbambos is found at an elevation of 1500-2000 metres in South Africa (in the Cape Provinces, Free State, and KwaZulu-Natal), Lesotho and Swaziland along mountain side streams. It is found in the Amathole Mountains, the Bamboesberg (for which it is named), and the Drakensberg. Bergbambos is one of two temperate bamboo species on the African mainland, and the only bamboo native to South Africa and Lesotho.

Bamboos are divided into three categories on the basis of their flowering cycle - annual flowering, irregular flowering and gregarious flowering occurring at long intervals with synchronised flower and seed production. Most bamboos belong to this last category with intermasts ranging from 3 to 120 years. Bergbambos belongs to this third category and flowers at 45 year intervals. Records from KwaZulu-Natal noting flowering in 1908, 1953 and 1998/99. It is also a host of the IUCN Red List-listed vulnerable butterfly, the bamboo sylph (Metisella syrinx).