When most people think of bamboo, they imagine the fast-growing hallowed stems that are used for building, cooking, and feeding pandas. What most people don’t imagine is the Nandina domestica plant, also known as both heavenly bamboo and sacred bamboo. Despite the name, heavenly bamboo isn’t bamboo at all, but rather a small shrub.
The shrub is about six feet tall when fully grown. The feature that sets the shrub apart from others, however, is the appearance of the leaves. While most shrubs start out with yellow or light green colored leaves, heavenly bamboo has leaves that are bright pink in color. As the leaves age, they slowly turn from pink to red and finally green. The leaves stay green during the majority of the growth cycle, but when it comes time for the leaves to die off and drop, they change back from green, to red, then purple. This unique feature added with the relatively small size makes the heavenly bamboo a perfect bonsai plant.
