Dendrocalamus sinicus

Dendrocalamus sinicus, the dragon bamboo, is a gigantic clumping bamboo native to Yunnan Province of China and to Laos. It has the largest culms of any known species of bamboo; up to 36 cm (14 in) wide with culm walls up to 6 centimetres (2.4 in) thick and the culm up to 46 m (151 ft) height. Each culm can weigh up to 450 kg (990 lb) apiece. A plant eventually consists of about one hundred culms. This species was unknown to mainstream science prior to 1980, although well known to the citizens of Yunnan and Laos for centuries.