How to clone native bamboo / cane / Rivercane / Arundinaria
Written August 22 2025. This text is public domain, share it wherever you want, no credit needed.
Some conservation group dig up whole entire clumps of cane at a time with bulldozers, but you likely won't have the resources to do that. This post will be assuming you're trying to clone smaller, more manageable sizes.
also: The difference between a root and a rhizome? Most plants have roots, you see them almost any time you transplant flowers from one pot into another. Not all plants have rhizomes though, which are like roots, but are actually modified stems. If you take a section of rivercane rhizome that's spent its whole life underground, where it'll likely be white, and expose it to the sun (while keeping it alive), it'll turn green and start to photosynthesize, and send out branches. Roots would likely just shrivel up.
A native bamboo plant that you're able to dig up parts of.
A shovel with a point, either a full sized one, a spade, or a nice trowel, depending on what sort of soil you're gonna have to dig in.
Some sharp plant clippers, "anvil" style preferable to bypass. You may also be able to use some sharp kitchen shears, it depends on the size of the rhizomes.
Some damp paper towels or an actual towel.
Plastic wrap or a large zip lock bag, depending on the size of the rhizomes. OR a big bucket of water if you're getting a bunch and actually have a car.
A plant pot + nice soil to transplant it into (unless you're transplanting directly into the ground)
Find the native bamboo. You can look on this map on iNaturalist. If you're within any of the areas where it's normally found, or are near those areas, you can probably find some if you know what to look for.
If you're in an area surrounded by observations, but without any in your particular area, it's more likely to mean "no one's looked for it or noticed it here" rather than "aww, there's non here at all :(". Most people don't use iNaturalist AND don't look at or care about plants.
Step 2: Make sure you're allowed to dig there, and if you / the property owner haven't yet, call 811 to make sure there's nothing you might hit. You usually don't have to dig deep to get rhizomes, but you don't want to be the one who hits a gas pipe by mistake.
Step 3: Have your damp towels and plastic wrap / bag ready before you start digging, or have the water already in your big bucket if you're doing it that way.
Step 4: Plan where you're gonna dig. In early summer, when new shoots are starting to pop up, digging them up and replanting can work very well. You probably would not want to try transplanting an 8ft tall new shoot, though. Go for smaller sections of the plant that are fresh and green, or try to find rhizomes that haven't popped up yet.
Brush away leaves so you can look at the dirt itself. Sometimes you'll get lucky, and rhizomes will be right at or even above the surface of the soil, and you can just snip them off with your plant clippers.
Often, if you have the end of a rhizome, you can lift up upwards to expose more, then cut it when you have a good length that can be cut into smaller plants.
With some plants, rhizomes will be thin enough you can break them in half with just your hands. Most probably won't be like that, though, which is why you should have clippers, or at the very least, a trowel with a serrated edge. But trust me, you'll want the clippers.
If no rhizomes are visible at the surface, use your shovel and dig in a circle around the shoot you want to dig up, with some space to maintain any actual roots it might have formed already, going as deep as you need to to find the rhizome the shoot is coming from.
If you're really unlucky, you won't find any horizontal rhizomes at all, and will have no choice but to just cut as far down the vertical shoot as you can. This can still work for cloning, but isn't ideal.
Here's a good example of a great horizontal rhizome cutting (photo 4) And here's an example of a vertical rhizome cutting (photo 4).
To keep your rhizomes healthy until you can transplant them, wrap them in your damp paper towels or towel, then place them in the plastic bag, or use plastic wrap, or put them in your container of water.
When it's time to transplant them, either into a container or directly in the ground, make sure you mulch them well, and water them in, then, if it's not raining, keep coming back regularly to water them until they are established. If using containers, keep them in shade for the first few days, or use a humidity dome to help them keep their leaves alive. if they lose their leaves, keep watering them to give them the best chance to grow new ones. Whatever you do, don't let the rhizomes dry out completely.
If you have many rhizomes that can be made into many more, smaller cuttings, you can try planting them vertically like in this video
