Mexican bamboo Polygonum cuspidatum is not a true bamboo but rather a large, robust member of the buckwheat family. It is also called Japanese knotweed. Mexican bamboo grows very rapidly, with heights ranging from three to nine feet. Its slightly zigzag stems are hollow, with large triangularshaped leaves appearing singly. Greenishwhite flowers with five petals appear in clusters that resemble thin drooping white lilacs. The characteristic that makes these plants so tough to eradicate is their persistent underground fleshy rhizome stem, growing five feet or more out from the upright stems.

Website: http://www.extension.umn.edu/projects/yardandgarden/ygbriefs/h513mexbamboo.html