B. spinosa Roxb. Leaves given to horses suffering coughs and colds. Toxicity Eight grams of raw shoots or slightly more improperly cooked shoots can cause death. Thrives in tropical to subtropical climates, growing in warm humid temperate areas as well, but thriving best under frost-free conditions, in rich to medium fertile soils with good water supply. Cultivation Bamboos may be produced by means of seeds, vegetative portions or by layering the stems and letting them root at the nodes.
Germination occurs in about a week and seedlings grow rapidly.
Transplanting to the field is done when plants are about 1 m tall. Growing plants from seed is the most economical and convenient method of propagating large numbers of plants. Clump division is the traditional and most generally prevalent method of propagating bamboos vegetatively. Active growth of young shoots from buds on the rhizome in this group of bamboos is initiated during the summer. The commonly recommended practice is to process vegetative propagules just before the initiation of growth of these buds.