Nandina is commonly referred as the heavenly bamboo. But in actuality, it is anything but heavenly. To start with, its fruits, the small red berries about 1 center meter in diameter, are actually poisonous. Those devilishly red berries propagate themselves by attracting innocent birds, small mammals, and sometimes even dim-witted humans. Nandina is a weedy plant that can survive in many kinds of climates and soil conditions. It selfishly takes over spaces of native plants and sucks up all the fertile nutrients. Its deceiving color changes constantly with the season in order to avoid showing its true form- a weed. And its tiny white flowers, clustered in strands, display no elegance that’s associated with larger flowers like rose. One can barely tell if there are even flower petals.
Nandina names itself as the “heavenly bamboo”, yet it is neither heavenly nor a bamboo. To be heavenly, one must be tall and grand, soaring towards the sky, but Nandina is a cowardly short shrub, usually at the height of a man. And it is far from being related to bamboo. From its non-segmented stem, to its rough, bumpy bark, to its dicot leaves, Nandina carries no resemblance to bamboo, a simply graceful monocot.
Nandina is truly a devilish weed shrub disguised as a heavenly bamboo.

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