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 14.5 inches (37 cm) wide with culm walls up to 2.3 inches (5.8 cm) thick[1] and the culm up to 151 feet (46 meters) in height.

Each culm can weigh up to 990 pounds (450 kg) apiece.

[2][3][4] A plant eventually consists of about one hundred culms.

This species was unknown to science prior to 1980, although well known to the citizens of Yunnan and Laos for centuries.