Real Dictionary

bamboo
variable noun: Bamboo is a tall tropical plant with hard, hollow stems. The young shoots of the plant can be eaten and the stems are used to make furniture.

bamboo in American English
any of a number of semitropical or tropical grasses (subfamily Bambusoideae) often resembling trees, with perennial, jointed stems that are woody, hard, springy, and often hollow and sometimes grow to a height of c. 36 m (c. 120 feet): the stems are used
of bamboo
noun: any of the woody or treelike tropical and semitropical grasses of the genera Bambusa, Phyllostachys, Dendrocalamus, and allied genera, having woody, usually hollow stems with stalked blades and flowering only after years of growth

bamboo in British English
noun: any tall treelike tropical or semitropical fast-growing grass of the genus Bambusa, having hollow woody-walled stems with ringed joints and edible young shoots (bamboo shoots)