Bamboo Women Blog

There’s a plant that’s being sold around the world under the name of Lucky Bamboo that’s giving real bamboo an undeserved black eye. Not only is it not real bamboo, but it’s not even in the same family as bamboo–and it’s potentially harmful to house pets that may inadvertently eat it.

Lucky Bamboo is a member of the Dracaena family, usually Dracaena sanderiana. It’s a common houseplant and is often used in the practice of feng shui. The Lucky Bamboo plants are generally sold in small vases, accompanied by small rocks and a little water. In the wild, Dracaena sanderiana is native to Cameroon in tropical west Africa, where it grows about four feet tall near the bottom of Cameroon’s rainforest.

Lucky Bamboo is fairly hardy and can survive many indoor conditions, but since it’s a rainforest plant, it prefers indirect light. In fact, its leaves will burn and turn yellow in direct sunlight. It actually does best in soil, but it’s often marketed with its roots in water, and it will do fairly well if kept that way. If you decide to keep your Lucky Bamboo in water, either use bottled water or let tap water sit for twenty-four hours before using it. Whichever you choose, change the water every two weeks.

One of its most popular features is Lucky Bamboo’s ability to twist around support poles and to achieve interesting shapes when forced to grow in an unnatural way, since it doesn’t grow that way in the wild. However, feng shui masters believe that using Lucky Bamboo will bring good fortune to a home or office. It can make a nice accent to an interior decor, with its green leaves and thick stems. Whatever you do, however, keep the plant out of reach of house pets, since it can be toxic.

It’s too bad that such a popular houseplant, one that’s an often-used component of feng shui, is able to be passed off to consumers as bamboo. It’s not bamboo, but if a person’s pet happens to get sick or even die from consuming Lucky Bamboo, real bamboo takes the rap, which is very unfair to a plant that has traditionally had so many beneficial uses. In fact, the potential of real bamboo is only now beginning to be explored as a building material and alternative energy source.

Don’t be fooled by the name. While it may have its place in decorating, Lucky Bamboo is not bamboo, and if your house pet should happen to eat it, it will also prove to be far from lucky!

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Copyright © 2007 Jeanette

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 25th, 2007 at 12:46 pm and is filed under Bamboo Women Community, Bamboo Plant, Environment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.